Category: General

Everything else

Further Unitary Plan Submissions Close July 22

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Get that submission in – however, conditions apply

 

From Auckland Council

Not too late for further submission to Unitary Plan

 

Further submissions to the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan close on 22 July 2014.

These are limited to being either in support or opposition to changes to the plan, as requested in the over 9,400 original submissions which contained requests for nearly 100,000 changes.

Only people or entities with an interest greater than the general public or who represent a matter of public interest can make a further submission.

For information on making a further submission visit aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/unitaryplan

Further submissions will be presented to the Auckland Unitary Plan Independent Hearings Panel which will consider all submissions to the plan over the next two years.

The final unitary plan is not expected to be made operative until late 2016.

 

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I will leave with this those quote:

Political Quote of the Day: “There is a great difference between knowing and understanding: you can know a lot about something and not really understand it.” Charles F. Kettering

 

A Step Closer for the some 3000 Houses to be Built

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First set of Special Housing Area Homes to go up in Hobsonville Point?

 

From Auckland Council

First Housing Accord plan variation to create up to 3000 new homes

 

A group of landowners in Hobsonville have become the first to lodge a plan variation application in an Auckland Special Housing Area (SHA), bringing plans to create up to 3000 new homes a step closer.

If accepted, the proposal will vary 155Ha of the Scott Point SHA for mixed residential and associated uses. This will allow for the development of standalone houses, terraced houses and possibly apartments, and allows for open space, neighbourhood centre and protected ecological zones. The area is currently zoned as Future Urban within the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan.

The Scott Point SHA was among one of the first announced following the signing of the Auckland Housing Accord, which provides for the creation of SHAs by Auckland Council with the approval of Government.

This enables qualifying developments in the SHAs to be streamlined and fast-tracked. Three tranches of SHAs have so far been announced, with 63 established in total to date. These areas will help boost Auckland’s land and housing supply including the provision of quality affordable homes over the next three years.

After working with Council’s Housing Project Office (HPO), six of the area’s 38 landowners have teamed up to apply for the variation, which could lead to the development of up to 3000 new dwellings over time.

David Clelland, Growth and Infrastructure Manager at the HPO said: “This is a large-scale project that is challenging because of the many different land owners involved.”

“This plan variation application, one of many we expect to come into the HPO in the coming months, is a significant development because it is the first to be submitted in an SHA,” he said.

“Under the previous process it would have taken many years to reach this point, which highlights the difference the HPO is already making. We now expect the area to develop rapidly once a decision on the plan variation is made in the next six months.”

Mr Clelland said the HPO masterplanning and consenting teams have been working hard with the applicants to ensure that the plans for development respond to the challenge in a practical way that will reflect its wonderful location, context and leave a neighbourhood that is valued by existing and future residents.

Abu Hoque, Harrison Grierson’s Project Manager and Lead Urban Designer for the Scott Point project said: “It’s been a fascinating journey to progress this enormously challenging project involving a large number of private individual land owners and key stakeholders over the last few months.

“Our aim was to identify the most appropriate development outcome for the area, so that it can become a special place not only for its residents, but also for its visitors and for generations to come. We are extremely fortunate to have the wonderful people of the HPO beside us, who assisted us throughout the project to make it a real collaborative creative planning and design decision making process.”

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Mean while I got this today as my family are in the Takanini Strategic Housing Area

 

Given that I live in a Mixed Housing Urban Zone area it could be interesting in a couple of years if intensification development were to occur with the Papakura Metropolitan Centre no too far away.

 

Organic Food Waste Trial Gives Insight to Wider Roll Out Next Year

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92% of respondents were positive of the trial

 

From Auckland Council

Organics collection trial offers food for thought for future service

 

 

Most participants think Auckland Council’s planned new organics collection service is a good idea, according to an independent survey of households in the trial.

Halfway through the organics trial on Auckland’s North Shore valuable feedback is flowing in on how council can create a user-friendly food waste collection service with 92 per cent of those surveyed saying the trial is a good idea.

Participants separate food scraps and other organic matter such as paper towels, tea bags and indoor cut flowers from their usual rubbish collection so it can be collected weekly and turned into compost.

Trial participants’ comments are also helping council better understand how people are adapting to the service and what effect it has on waste minimisation, before its planned roll out across urban Auckland.

Auckland Council Solid Waste Operations Manager Warwick Jaine, says the council is

pleased with results so far, but it is also aware that some people have concerns, about everything from the durability, size and fit of the kitchen caddy liners to odour issues from fortnightly council rubbish collection.

“We’re listening to all feedback and investigating solutions, such as maintaining weekly council rubbish pick up for a few years, to help ease the transition when an organics collection is introduced throughout urban Auckland,” said Mr Jaine.

 

The organics collection trial has been running since May, across nearly 2000 households in parts of Northcote, Milford and Takapuna, chosen to largely reflect Auckland’s demographics.

So far 85 per cent of households in the trial have put out their organics bin at least once, while 75 per cent are regular users of the weekly service. Both figures are well above the trial’s participation targets.

In eight weeks, the trial has diverted 31 tonnes of food waste from landfill to be processed into compost.

The trial evaluation includes a survey of randomly selected households in the trial area undertaken by Gravitas Research and Strategy, an independent research company.

A new rates-funded urban organics collection service was one of a suite of projects promised in the council’s Waste Management and Minimisation Plan of 2012 and is intended to significantly reduce waste to landfill.

 

Survey information

A survey of 337 residents in the trial area undertaken between 4 June and 27 June 2014.

A total of 92 per cent of respondents thought the organics collection was a good idea for Auckland. Of that number, 67 per cent said it was a very good idea, and 25 per cent said it was a good idea. Four per cent said it was neither a good nor bad idea, one per cent each said it was a poor or very poor idea, and another one per cent each were not sure yet or didn’t know.

When asked how satisfied or dissatisfied they were with aspects of the organics collection trial, 87 per cent of respondents said they were satisfied with the organics, recycling and rubbish collection service overall as a way to manage household waste.

Another five per cent said they were dissatisfied, while seven per cent were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, and one per cent did not answer this question.

The trial evaluation also includes further qualitative research, to explore the initial findings in more depth and a follow up survey at the end of the trial.

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The new waste collection system which is meant to have three bins (general, recycling and organic) starts in 2015