Unitary Plan goes live in September

 

From Auckland Council

Auckland Unitary Plan decided

Auckland Council completed decisions on the Independent Hearings Panel recommendations on the Auckland Unitary Plan today.

The Governing Body decisions are summarised below.

More detailed information on what was debated today can be found in the agenda available on Auckland Council’s website. The meeting minutes with a full summary of decisions will be added once confirmed.

This meeting was also webcast on the council’s website and items are available on demand.

The Governing Body reconvened with decisions on part D 7.8.1 – Water quality and quantity, lakes, rivers and streams, aquifers and ground water and discharges of stormwater and wastewater.

 

Decision Summary

046/047/048/049 – Water

The Governing Body rejected the Panel’s recommendations in relation to:

• deleting permitted activity land use rule for stormwater runoff into the stormwater network and combined sewer network.
• amending a permitted activity status for sites that do not discharge to a stream or discharge below RL 2m in a Stormwater Management Areas Flow.
• amending the activity status for roads within a Stormwater Management Areas Flow.
• deleting the default activity status for roads/motorways within a Stormwater Management Areas Flow not meeting the standards.
• amending general standards to apply to sites and roads.
• amending the hydrology mitigation requirements for some roading projects.
• deleting of the definition “Redevelopment of a road”.

065 – Definitions

The Governing Body rejected Panel’s recommendations in relation to:

• amending the definition of height makes the structures exempted from the definition subject to width and height limits that are unworkable for some structures.

 

Report backs to the Governing Body

The Governing Body heard further information on topics from council staff so decisions could be made on the following:

010 – Historic Heritage

• The Governing Body adopted the Panel’s recommendation to delete the policies which seek to protect and manage unscheduled significant historic heritage.
• To adopt the alternative solution for including the Symonds Street flats into the Schedule of Historic Heritage.

 

077 – Sustainable Design

• The Governing Body adopted the Panel’s recommendation to delete the Auckland-wide objectives, policies and rules for sustainable design.

 

080 – Rezoning and precincts (General), and 081 Rezoning and Precincts (Geographic areas) and 016 and 017 – Rural Urban Boundary (RUB) – NORTH

The Governing Body:

• rejected the Panel’s recommendations relating to the extension of the Rural Urban Boundary north of the Vaughans Road ridgeline into the Okura catchment at a location to the east of Okura village.
• rejected the Panel’s recommendations relating to the application of a new precinct to the land north of Vaughans Road, Okura and rezoning approximately 30ha of land from Countryside Living to Mixed Housing Suburban, Large Lot, Open Space Conservation and Open Space – Informal Recreation.
• Rejects the Panel’s recommendation in relation to the rezoning of approximately 30ha of land from Countryside Living to Future Urban zone on land to the north of Vaughans Road/east of Okura Village for the reasons outlined in a) above.
• amend the minimum and minimum average net site areas to include a minimum net site area and average net site area without transferable rural site subdivision, of 4ha to land known as Okura East.
• added the Control: Subdivision Variation Control – Rural, Okura East Countryside Living to the land know as Okura East.

 

059 to 063 – Residential zones

• The Governing Body rejected the Panel’s recommendations for the deletion of front fence rule and deleting policies relating to streetscape from the Single House, Mixed Housing Suburban, Mixed Housing Urban and Terrace House and Apartment Building zones.

 

075 – Waitakere Ranges

• The Governing Body adopted the Panel’s recommendations for removal of some activities where they are managed by bylaws, where they are unnecessary or where they are managed by other rules.

 

043/044 -Transport

• The Governing Body rejected the Panel’s recommendations regarding amending the parking rates – (Metropolitan Centre, Town Centre, Local Centre and Mixed Use zones and Terrace Housing and Apartment Building zone) to remove maximum and minimum parking rates for all activities within these zones with the exception of retail and commercial service activities (minimum parking rate only).

 

• The Governing Body rejected Panel’s recommendations on Parking rates for residential and non-residential parking rates in the City Centre of 1:125m²for non-residential activities within a proposed ‘Outer core’ parking area while applying a rate of 1:200m² within a proposed ‘Inner core’ parking area. A maximum rate of 1.5 car parks per dwelling (regardless of dwelling size) is proposed for residential activities

 

042 – Infrastructure

• The Governing Body adopted the Panel’s recommendations on the deletion of the High Land Transport Noise Overlay and associated provisions, the deletion of a policy referring to the avoidance of designations in the road corridor.

 

• The Governing Body rejected the Panel’s recommendations regarding increasing the extent of the National Grid corridor overlay, as it relates to an area of 32m each side of 110kv lines and 37m each side of the centreline of 220kv lines depicted in the National Grid Overlay.

 

ENDS

History made as Auckland Unitary Plan decided

An historic moment in New Zealand planning history and a new landmark for Auckland’s future has been reached today with final decisions completed on the Auckland Unitary Plan.

The council’s Governing Body made its last decisions on the recommendations from the Independent Hearings Panel following four days of decision-making.

The next step will be public notification of the council’s decisions on Friday 19 August followed by a statutory 20 working day period for limited appeals, which closes on Friday 16 September.

Today’s milestone means that, after four years in the making, Auckland now has a new single set of planning rules to manage the city’s future growth. The plan will provide for more housing and infrastructure that will be balanced with the protection of Auckland’s heritage and natural environments.

Key decisions made by the council means the new Auckland Unitary Plan will provide for:

• More than 400,000 new residential  homes to meet the demands of Auckland’s growth over the next 30 years.
• Expansion of the Rural Urban Boundary to open up more new land for development as the city grows, with flexibility to move the boundary through private plan changes.
• A more compact city with opportunities to build more homes in the existing urban area of two to three stories, and up to six stories close to town centres and transport hubs.
• A focus on high quality urban design, including the requirement for a resource consent for more than three dwellings on a site that complies with urban design rules and a minimum size for apartments.
• Protection of our historic heritage with approximately 120 additional historic places scheduled, as well as the retention of protection of 74 volcanic viewshafts.
• Managing our rural areas so that rural activities are the primary focus.

Auckland Mayor Len Brown said the decisions on the Unitary Plan were passed with a high level of goodwill.

“My colleagues are to be applauded for their positive manner, as is the public for allowing us the space to deliberate accordingly. We now have a very finely balanced plan which will ultimately deliver for the benefit of Auckland.  I also salute the outstanding professionalism of council staff.”

Deputy Mayor and Chair of the Auckland Development Committee, Penny Hulse, who has led the bulk of the Unitary Plan process, thanked communities across the region who had taken part in the process and have been involved since the draft and proposed plans were notified in 2013.

“Without a doubt, this is the biggest exercise undertaken by Auckland Council since its inception and it simply couldn’t have happened without the drive and passion from everyone involved.

“Without them, we would not have the plan we have today – a plan that will help grow and shape our incredible city in decades to come,” says Ms Hulse.

The end of the council’s decision-making process is a critical milestone in the four-year process which involved extensive public consultation, hearings, evidence review and decision-making.

—ends—

 

I had said in an earlier post that the Unitary Plan goes live on Friday. That is incorrect with the final version of the Unitary Plan being notified to the public on Friday. The Unitary Plan itself goes live on September 16 after the appeal lodgement period. Any parts of the Unitary Plan not appealed go live on September 16 with appealed parts to go through the Environment Court before going live via a Court decision.

Got a bit excited there and apologies for incorrect information earlier.