NIMBYism in Mt Albert has correlation to housing shortage in Southern Auckland
What would a Housing New Zealand project in a Special Housing Area in Mt Albert have to do with a shortage if housing needed in South Auckland?
Answer: NIMBY’s!
Yesterday two different articles from two different publications came out illustrating the housing situation in Auckland.
In the Herald piece local Mt Albert residents as well as their Labour-stacked Local Board (who should know better) were complaining about lack of input to designs as well as outright NIMBYism to a Housing New Zealand project in Mt Albert. The project is on a Special Housing Areas which by law grant limited appeal rights in the limited notification processes unlike normal notifications in non-SHA areas.
From the NZ Herald
Mt Albert locals band together to fight state house scheme
5:00 AM Wednesday Jan 14, 2015 – Anne Gibson
Photo and Credit/Attribution / Martin Sykes – NZ Herald
Mt Albert residents have upped the ante in their opposition to Housing New Zealand’s plans for a Special Housing Area in their suburb.
The state agency wants to redevelop the 34-unit lot at 33 Asquith Ave, which runs parallel with New North Rd near Mt Albert Grammar School and where a small group of run-down places will be replaced by a much larger residential scheme.
But worried residents have formed the Asquith Community Group in a bid to get Housing NZ to engage with them in planning a development which doesn’t make their lives difficult.
Their website, asquith.org.nz, aims to rally more support and pressure Housing NZ to discuss the plans, but the state agency says its scheme will be high quality, designed by award-winning Cheshire Architects and is still being developed.
Housing NZ says it is also sensitive to the existing neighbourhood and once it has initial plans, it will present them to locals.
But the new website lists many concerns, including the group’s desire to be involved with the planning and concept ideas for the site.
Albert-Eden Local Board chairman Peter Haynes praised the group and also expressed concerns about plans.
“I think that the neighbours’ list is a splendid example of what the community can come up with when given the opportunity. The concerns raised by the neighbours are very close to those that the board has discussed and raised with council officers,” he said.
Residents listed alarm about the number of units being planned, that they could be out of character with the existing neighbourhood, the need to preserve an existing corner park which has mature trees and retain a path through that park, provision of adequate off-street carparking, the bulk and location of new units and what would happen to a stacked stone boundary wall.
Now the neighbours and the Local Board wanting to participate in the design process (providing we are not going to micro-manage as well as death by committee) I certainly do not mind. The participation would certainly knock on the head NIMBYism Class One and Two (will link the post describing that below).
But when we see people start referring to: that they could be out of character with the existing neighbourhoodthen we get what I call Class Three NIMBYism and something I have very little time for. There is no such thing as “out of character” unless Housing New Zealand (in this case) were going to build a six storey brutalist designed concrete block on their development site. Neighbourhoods are not snowglobes parked in a museum for all eternity. They like the City are a constant evolving organism and new developments that are often adapting to the changing environment to their predecessors before them.
So those claiming out of character in a new development does not wash with me at all.
And so while Middle Class Mt Albert and their Local Board are whinging about a Housing NZ development in their area (you will see why my language is rather sour) we have this situation owing to a lack of housing via Housing New Zealand in South Auckland:
People in genuine need of housing from Housing NZ but can’t get it because of the shortage of stock. What makes that shortage even worse is when Housing NZ try to build to expand their stock the middle class who own their own homes stop them through class 3 NIMBYism.
That situation greatly annoys me when we have people in plight but there are those who simply do not care. Otherwise I would not see such objection unless it was truly out of character such as I mentioned above. To the residents of Mt Albert as well as the Labour-stacked Local Board in Mt Albert I say shame on you while we have people in dire need of State housing yet Housing NZ can not expand due to middle class NIMBYism.
Note: I am aware of Central Government policy around State Housing. In this instance it does not bear resemblance into this debate. However, in the wider debate Central Government does need to do more to make sure emergency housing and state housing is there for those in true need. That said and coming back to this debate even if the Government via Housing NZ were to embark on a large scale State housing program in Auckland I would say it will still run into Class 3 NIMBYism from the Middle Class property owners.
NIMBY’s, love them or detest them they are always going to be there when it comes to Planning. Our most classic example is watching them come out of the woodwork every time the Unitary Plan is in the spot light. That said you can usually class NIMBY’s into three broad but semi-fluid categories:
1) Those with legitimate concerns
Once case would be a factory that has obnoxious emissions being set up close to an established residential area. Or (and usually the case) a badly designed and out-of-place mid rise apartment block (so 4-8 storeys) in an established residential area whether it already has mid rise blocks or a low density zone just up scaled. A close example of that was the Milford development recently approved by the Environment Court. Long story short it was eventually concluded that what was originally proposed was deemed out-of-place due to its height. After some compromises the heights were lowered and the development can now go ahead. Looking at the compromise the development is now back in character as the area will evolve with more mid rise developments over time.
When faced with NIMBY’s from legitimate concerns the situation can be often easily solved with all parties entering dialogue and not being stand-offish against each other. Often and sadly this means a date with the Environment Court to get that compromise. Milford went through this and most recently the Orakei Point development. That said there was also the case of NIMBYism for the sake of NIMBYism (see number 3) fouling the process as well which is certainly no help. Remove these kind of NIMBY’s out and 99% of the time you will get a compromise that is decent for all parties – in the end.
2) Surprised or Spooked
This happens all too often when people go NIMBY owing to either lack of information or lack dialogue (if you have fully notified consents). Auckland Council are no angels for surprising and spooking people with planning decisions and it happens all to often. It is a natural instinct to go into full defensive mode when dropped into a situation with no information at hand. Humans like other animals fear what they do not understand as we do not know what the effects will be up-on them. I have always said even if it is controversial be up front with all the facts straight away. Do not tell half-truths under any circumstances. People will nearly always (even if they are in opposition (or will be)) they are appreciative of the fact that the consenting authority was up front straight away with all the facts at hand. And that appreciation can extend and lead back to NIMBY cause number 1 and compromises fleshed out. In my observations 9/10 NIMBY issues with planning in Auckland comes from this situation – the people being surprised and spooked. A situation that can be easily avoided.
3) NIMBYism for the sake of NIMBYism
The Planetizen article outlines this kind of NIMBYism. People objecting for no real good reason because often “they hate change” (as one person said once at a St Heliers meeting during the initial Unitary Plan feedback rounds). These kind of people are your noisiest and will literally spam the heck out of the Main Stream and Social Media outlets. They as well as tie up Council Committees and all too often the Environment Court which grinds the processes down and waste people’s time and money. In my observations you can not reason with them so do not bother. You can usually debunk them with solid actual facts – you just need to get through all the noise they generate first. I can think of five particular people in Auckland that would fall in this category – ironically four of them are elected representatives in Auckland…
This extract from Planetizen sums up point three rather aptly – albeit from an American experience…….
3 thoughts on “NIMBY’s Deprive Others Of Much Needed Housing”
Yes the ‘out of character’ line could mean many things, some of them very negative indeed.
I had commented to Bill Ralston, when he was concerned about the ‘out of character’ high rise developments that were being planned for parts of Franklin road, that what he could do is get all the residents of the street who supported his desire to retain the ‘character’ of the street to formalize those characteristics into words and then covenant them on those all agreed and hence the neighbourhood could be protected from further changes that were against this ‘character.’ To be clear I am all for the character look of Franklin road to be kept, but as I expected, I never heard back from Rolston as the probable truth of the matter is while he expected ‘other’s’ like council to stop people from spoiling the character, he was not prepared to do that himself for fear of that character not being as valuable as he thought.
I agree with your types of Nimbyism, but I think because of the way housing NZ have approached this, they received the appropriate response.
In this process there are only certain times a neighbourhood can object and have any hope of effecting the end result. This is their time.
HNZ have already admitted that they are going to come up with some concepts first and then talk to the community. Well that is the wrong way to start the dialogue to begin with. When the community are told something like this, without any information otherwise, they will always assume the worse, and there counter reaction will be accordingly unbalanced.
Not that this would change the end result, but it’s how you get there that is important.
I would say they are Class 2 Nimby’s.
And I think you are drawing a long bow to say they are responsible for a housing shortage in South Auckland. It’s all down to unaffordability, which most of NZ is.
The reason housing is in the mess it is in is purely political.
To be fair yes. Housing NZ can come like a bull at the gate.
That is why I am happy for collaboration between the residents and HNZ to satisfy the needs from Class 1 and 2 NIMBYism which HNZ would have no doubt triggered.
That said I need a new name for those two classes of NIMBYism as it is not pure NIMBYism as you get in Class 3.
HNZ being obstinate as noted would have trigged both the first two classes for sure. Hence concerns and the residents wanting to be part of the processes providing we do not get micro management nor death by committee.
However, that “out of character” line does not sit with me for numerous reasons and I wonder if there is underlying tones to the objections.
Talking Southern Auckland 
Yes the ‘out of character’ line could mean many things, some of them very negative indeed.
I had commented to Bill Ralston, when he was concerned about the ‘out of character’ high rise developments that were being planned for parts of Franklin road, that what he could do is get all the residents of the street who supported his desire to retain the ‘character’ of the street to formalize those characteristics into words and then covenant them on those all agreed and hence the neighbourhood could be protected from further changes that were against this ‘character.’ To be clear I am all for the character look of Franklin road to be kept, but as I expected, I never heard back from Rolston as the probable truth of the matter is while he expected ‘other’s’ like council to stop people from spoiling the character, he was not prepared to do that himself for fear of that character not being as valuable as he thought.
I agree with your types of Nimbyism, but I think because of the way housing NZ have approached this, they received the appropriate response.
In this process there are only certain times a neighbourhood can object and have any hope of effecting the end result. This is their time.
HNZ have already admitted that they are going to come up with some concepts first and then talk to the community. Well that is the wrong way to start the dialogue to begin with. When the community are told something like this, without any information otherwise, they will always assume the worse, and there counter reaction will be accordingly unbalanced.
Not that this would change the end result, but it’s how you get there that is important.
I would say they are Class 2 Nimby’s.
And I think you are drawing a long bow to say they are responsible for a housing shortage in South Auckland. It’s all down to unaffordability, which most of NZ is.
The reason housing is in the mess it is in is purely political.
To be fair yes. Housing NZ can come like a bull at the gate.
That is why I am happy for collaboration between the residents and HNZ to satisfy the needs from Class 1 and 2 NIMBYism which HNZ would have no doubt triggered.
That said I need a new name for those two classes of NIMBYism as it is not pure NIMBYism as you get in Class 3.
HNZ being obstinate as noted would have trigged both the first two classes for sure. Hence concerns and the residents wanting to be part of the processes providing we do not get micro management nor death by committee.
However, that “out of character” line does not sit with me for numerous reasons and I wonder if there is underlying tones to the objections.