As does the Kumeu-Huapai Ratepayers Association

 

 

On Thursday the Auckland Development Committee meet in what would be a rather action packed agenda. Sadly though the bulk of it was behind closed doors which proved to be great annoyance of the Media Table. We (the Media Table) were very interested in these two items:

• Industrial Business Land – Recommendations from the 1 July 2014 Economic Development Committee meeting
• Housing Strategic Action Plan – Stage 1 – Update and Next Stage

Both of them are hot topic items at the moment in light of a few recent stories cropping up over those particular issues. One was the recent “Special Housing Areas Already in Trouble?” which spurred on a couple of presentations in the public forum which I will cover further down. The other that is being watched is the Drury South Plan Change which is now operative. That Plan Change allows the area at the Stevensons quarry site (as well as surrounds) to become a Heavy Industrial Zone. Something of relevance with the Council currently caught up in the debate over land set aside for commercial and industrial purposes. So yes we were rather annoyed that it took the Committee four hours behind closed doors to discuss the Special Housing Area Fourth Tranche as by the time we got back to those two bullet points above (the Agenda was switched around) we (and the public) were LONG gone home.

 

Anyhow prior to the Closed Agenda being discussed we did have two public forum pieces on Special Housing Areas.

Both the Kumeu-Huapai Ratepayers Association and Generation Zero were both presenting to the Committee on the issues Greenfield SHA’s were causing.

I have the Gen0 presentation below

 

The concerns from both groups were the same: SHA’s being whacked into Greenfield Areas with no infrastructure provisions existing or in need of serious upgrading. This presents serious costs to the development and with the 10% Inclusionary Zone rules attached (for “affordable housing”) you can see why we have had four developers walk away from the SHA’s and will build their developments under normal legacy provisions. To make the situations acute while the Southern Auckland SHA’s can handle the development and infrastructure provisions more easily (although it didn’t stop those three developers from walking away so what on earth did Council lug onto them. In saying that the Addison developments (especially Takanini Village) has been controversial insofar with Auckland Transport playing silly buggers and lugging the developer $28m to grade separate Walters Road level crossing if he wants to build the Glenora Road Station at no cost to the ratepayer. However, the North West SHA’s have NO infrastructure provisions that can handle the development load that is being anticipated. Furthermore I did not hear a lot of confidence at the public forum for the Westgate Metropolitan Centre development either insofar as it was asked where are the jobs for these new residents in the North West. The answer to that is THERE IS NO JOBS sufficient enough as the North West has no large-scale heavy industrial complexes like the South has. Those heavy industrial complexes attract large numbers of employment as well as economic outputs, more so than commercial centres especially commercial service centres (retail).

The Richard Paling Report Transport Patterns in the Auckland Region report already illustrates the commute patterns of the North West compared to Southern Auckland. The North West commutes relatively long distance (by road, rail or bus) towards the main City Centre. Southern Auckland commutes largely within itself. I noted that trend with the City Centre and Southern Auckland commute patterns here: A First Look at “Journey to Work Patterns in the Auckland Region”

 

I will cover in-depth the research report as it has serious implications on our planning, something I wonder if our Council realises? Something if the SHA debates are anything to go by I would have serious concern about.

 

The Fourth Tranche of the SHA’s that were discussed in the Auckland Development Committee should be sent to the Governing Body for ratification (the Tranches usually are). It will be interesting to see where the Fourth Tranche set went. Hopefully nothing else in the North West with the issues it already has…