Vision with Pragmatism

Not Ideological Bollocks

 

What I look for in an Auckland Mayor and by extension a Southern Auckland Ward Councillor

 

As a citizen and ratepayer I am active in the institution that is Auckland Council through regular submissions, presentations to various Committees, and of course my social media presence through Twitter and my Talking Auckland Blog.

With candidates and incumbents beginning position themselves for the Local Government elections next year I am penning my thoughts in what I want from a Mayor post Len Brown era and from my Southern Auckland Ward Councillors (given that I live in the Manurewa-Papakura Ward).

In short I am looking for a Mayor while fiscally conservative also has a social equity bone in their body. That is tight control on the budgets with prudent investments but also doing its part for those that are not as fortunate as the rest of us in Auckland. That is making public transport as equitable as possible, providing some social housing or making sure planning regulations do not get in the way of housing and establishment of employment centres. Also I am looking for a Mayor that while knows good Governance they also do not meddle in operational matters recently seen with the Kauri Tree issue, and the circumstances around Port of Auckland.

 

I am now going to draw out five basic concepts to flesh out the brief introductory summary above. Those concepts are:

1. Growth
2. Transport
3. Affordability
4. Community
5. Manukau

 

Growth

Auckland is growing and expected to hit two million people by 2032 on current projections. With most growth in Auckland from natural births I have little time for those who say we should either shut off immigration to Auckland or force people out of Auckland. Such tactics have never worked and will not work in Auckland.

With Auckland taking 60% of New Zealand’s growth and with Southern Auckland growing the fastest in Auckland we need to make sure our planning mechanisms are in place to handle such growth. The overarching document that would ensure such mechanisms in place would be the Auckland Plan. Currently the Auckland Plan does not allow for those mechanisms that I covered in my Auckland Plan MK2 Mini Series (https://voakl.net/2015/03/12/the-auckland-plan-and-the-sydney-plan-3-the-reality-facing-auckland-council/ ).

What the next Mayor of Auckland needs to do is oversee alongside the Councillors, Local Boards and Auckland itself the “refreshing” of the Auckland Plan. This does not mean an entire chuck out of the current version but adapting it to how Auckland is naturally evolving. It means some refreshing around four basic Development Strategies that would provide those mechanisms to handle Auckland’s growth.

Those Development Strategies (along with the transformational initiatives) being:

COMPETITIVE ECONOMY INCLUDING AN OUTSTANDING ONE NETWORK TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM

• MOVE TO OUTSTANDING PUBLIC TRANSPORT WITHIN ONE NETWORK
• SUBSTANTIALLY RAISE LIVING STANDARDS FOR ALL AUCKLANDERS AND FOCUS ON THOSE MOST IN NEED

 

PEOPLE AND PLACE INCLUDING MAORI AND YOUNG PEOPLE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC WELL-BEING, AND HISTORIC HERITAGE

• SIGNIFICANTLY LIFT MĀORI SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC WELL-BEING
• DRAMATICALLY ACCELERATE THE PROSPECTS OF AUCKLAND’S CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

 

THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT INCLUDING THE RURAL URBAN BOUNDARY

• RADICALLY IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF URBAN LIVING
• STRONGLY COMMIT TO ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION AND GREEN GROWTH

 

HOUSING CHOICE INCLUDING MANAGING GREENFIELD SUPPLY, URBAN RENEWAL, AND HOUSING CHOICE THROUGH ALLOWING FREELY DIFFERENT HOUSING TYPOLOGIES (SO AFFORDABILITY)

• RADICALLY IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF URBAN LIVING
• SUBSTANTIALLY RAISE LIVING STANDARDS FOR ALL AUCKLANDERS AND FOCUS ON THOSE MOST IN NEED

 

Those development strategies and transformation shifts influence the rest of the concepts (transport, affordability, community, and Manukau) while providing a clear set of goals for Auckland to try and achieve. I would also like to give credit to the New South Wales Planning Ministry and their Sydney Plan for the inspiration they gave for me in setting the four refreshed development strategies.

To target Auckland’s limited resources in carrying out the four development strategies the existing Ten Spatial Priorities (mentioned in the recent Long Term Plan consultation documents) with those priorities to be reviewed every five to ten years is an excellent concept. Thus targeted investment would be carried out in those spatial priority areas while the rest of Auckland is either preparing to become a spatial priority or “humming along.”

Of course to while Auckland grows we need to keep the people and goods moving as well.

 

Transport

Transport has been a vexed issue for the last 100 years in Auckland and with some it continues to do so. I have little time for Mayors, Councillors, and candidates pursuing a transport agenda on a pure ideological ground. So this pro-car anti public transport, pro public anti car clap trap I have very little time for. I do have time for those who go for vision but with pragmatism and a sense of fiscal prudence as well.

This is why I am more likely to support a Mayor and Councillors who give weight to the Generation Zero Essentials Transport Budget even with its given limitations especially for Southern Auckland. Those limitations I will mention at the end of the main speech.

But for the most part looking at the Long Term Plan Feedback (https://www.scribd.com/doc/258853997/LTP2015-2025-Submission-Update-Report-2015-03-15 ) while wanting some investment still in roads (and fair enough with a growing Auckland) the bulk of investment is wanted in public and active transport modes. This does include the City Rail Link the so called “killer app” project that expands capacity of not only the rail network but the bus networks as well. That capacity expansion can mean new lines to the networks such as the needed Airport and North Shore Rail Lines which service areas not currently done so by rail.

But while rail is taking the lion share of investment at the moment buses not should be forgotten as well. This includes bus interchanges at Otahuhu and Manukau, as well as bus ways to Pakuranga and Botany, and along the North Western Motorway.

But one must remember buses and rail complement each other not compete. Buses are great for short distance including shuttling into larger interchanges and some medium distance trips if backed up by right of ways like bus ways.

Light Rail can be treated like buses in handling short and medium distances most efficiently.

Heavy Rail is the most efficient form of moving a large amount of people over a given distance. However, for maximum efficiency heavy rail is most suited for medium to long distance travelling.

So in the end I am looking for a Mayor and Councillors that know the intricacies of a fully integrated private and public transport system. Again I have no time for ideological purity seen from some.

 

Affordability

Of course it all comes down to affordability. Affordability in not being Rated out of existence (so Council being fiscally prudent) while also doing something to get on top of housing affordability.

For affordability and Council budgets please see my Long Term Plan submission here: https://www.scribd.com/doc/258848494/Auckland-Council-LTP-2015-Feedback

To see how much I reduced the Council budget by (not including Governance and Support which I would like $200m/year wiped from the $700m staff wages bill) please see my Budget Calculator post: https://voakl.net/2015/03/05/budget-calculator-how-would-you-set-the-long-term-plan/

And for trying to restore affordability into house please read this post here which relays information from Auckland Council’s Chief Economist on trade-offs needed in getting housing under control: https://voakl.net/2015/03/10/trade-offs-needed-to-get-on-top-of-housing/

 

Community

Community is most important and often missed out especially be a large regional body such as Auckland Council. Sure we have the Local Boards and the bureaucracy (think Auckland Transport) but the empowerment to those Local Boards and Communities is left wanting. Let me give you an example of power being distributed disproportionately.

Trying to get a Master Plan for Manukau City Centre through the main Governing Body and bureaucracy of Auckland Council? Five years and still nowhere.

Getting two parklets in Manukau City Centre via the Local Board and Auckland Transport’s representative? I floated the idea November last year and the parklets to be operational by October this year.

So apart from more budget discretionary to the Local Boards Auckland Council needs to be more collaborative in working with the community.

Collaboration being (under the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2)):

• To partner with the public in each aspect of the decision making including the development of alternatives and identification of the preferred solution
• With the promise in working together with you to formulate solutions and incorporate your advice and recommendations into the decisions to the maximum extent possible.

A Mayor and Council that promotes more empowerment to the communities this way will earn my respect very quickly compared to the current regime that seem to “consult” with contempt of Auckland somewhat more.

 

Manukau

I have made a mention of Manukau here for a couple of reasons:

1. It is the heart of Southern Auckland
2. Southern Auckland is my home

With Manukau City Centre the heart of the South executing the development strategies and concepts above would prove to be a practical best for it. Manukau was meant to be the second transformation shift after the main City Centre itself. Well the City Centre is certainly getting the investment while Manukau is certainly not after the completion of the Manukau Station (set in motion by the legacy Manukau City Council anyhow).

So if the City Centre gets a City Centre Master Plan on the back of the CBD being the heart of Auckland, then Manukau City Centre being the heart of Southern Auckland (housing 38% of Auckland’s population and due to house 45% by 2032) needs its own City Centre Master Plan as well.

Why?

When I mentioned the Gen0/Transport Blog Essentials Transport Budget, as I noted in my earlier comment it was received coolishly by the two Councillors and the Deputy Mayor present (it was not dismissed out of hand so let me be extremely clear there). So I got Franklin Ward Councillor Cashmore, and our Deputy Mayor to flesh their side of the argument out. Personally I knew where this was going but I was going to see if they could articulate their point to which they did.

Cr Cashmore I have respect for after he articulated a point about heavy industry last year when no other Councillor apart from Penrose could. But what was being articulated last night was that the Essentials Transport Budget (note from my end that the BTN and APTN are not any better) has a hole in it and that hole is in Southern Auckland. Now don’t shoot me here I am just reporting back a critique (I gave one back as well). Southern Auckland is tipped for large if not the largest amount of both residential and employment growth – even more so than the City Centre itself. Reason? The South houses four of the five Heavy Industrial Complexes and those complexes are experiencing both growth and are nearly out of land until Drury South and later Glenbrook come on stream. Coupled with the South housing 38% of the population of Auckland and all things considered with NIMBYism on the Isthmus growing to 45% by the end of the Auckland Plan you hit an acute situation at hand.

YES the South will still commute to the City Centre but as I just pinged Simon Wilson from Metro Magazine on:

Metro @MetroMagNZ
“It’s easier for people in the inner city to escape to the country than for people who live on outskirts to drag themselves into the centre”

Ben Ross @BenRoss_AKL
@MetroMagNZ if they “want” to go to the Centre
MoTransport report says the South “doesn’t”

That Ministry of Transport report out last year strongly suggested Southern Auckland commutes within herself primarily and looking at future trends will continue to do so.

That report which I commented on in specific to the South can be seen here and here:
https://voakl.net/2014/08/21/aucklands-commuting-journeys-a-series-major-non-city-centre-employment-centres-overview/
https://voakl.net/2014/09/08/aucklands-commuting-journeys-a-series-concluding-remarks/

Now before Patrick pipes up everyone in that Have Your Say Session is aware of students and off peak leisure trips using the networks to go north from the South. That was beside the point. The point being and as Cashmore articulated and the session agreed with last night is that the South is growing and set to grow faster in housing and jobs (from her Industry). The South commutes within herself for the most part.

Transport investment coupled with integrated land use planning needs to realise this and this is where East West linking across the South, links like the Manukau South Link to be in position (Pasifika will prove that particular point this weekend), three new stations between Papakura and Pukekohe being needed all come into play.

NOW, whether the Council and Auckland Transport actually follow through and do the above is yet to be seen. However the rumblings coming from the Southern Councillors and with the Deputy Mayor nodding realise at the absolute minimum there is a massive hole in planning down here and it needs to be rectified and budgeted for soon.

http://transportblog.co.nz/2015/03/10/the-consultation-problem-who-submits-on-the-plan/

 

A good Mayor and Councillors would rectify the deficiencies I have mentioned above.

 

This concludes my “speech” on what I will be looking for in a Mayor and Councillors post 2016. Who will step up to the place to deliver effectively what I have mentioned above? Certainly not Cameron Brewer after his ideological and non-visionary speech earlier this week, that is for sure. So who will it be?

 

Reference Material

Long Term Plan Feedback Breakdown

 

Submission to Long Term Plan