Category: General

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Council Looking for New Independent Hearing Commissioners

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Calling those who want to help shape Auckland

 

Auckland Council is looking for new Commissioners to take up the reigns from mid-year. Note these are not Commissioners for the Unitary as they have already been appointed.

From Auckland Council

Applications invited for independent hearing commissioners

 

Applications are invited from qualified people to join Auckland Council’s pool of independent hearing commissioners.

A current “Making Good Decisions” accreditation by the Ministry for the Environment is preferred, and will be essential from 12 September 2014, along with skills in general planning or resource management law.

Applications close on 14 March 2014 for positions starting 1 June 2014 for a three year term, reviewable annually. 

The council currently has contracts with about 60 independent commissioners and these contracts are due to expire on 31 May 2014.  Under this review, the council is seeking to appoint about 40-50 independent commissioners.

 

Independent commissioners will sit as panel members, some as chairpersons.

They will sit on hearings for such purposes as resource consents, Section 357 objections, bylaw dispensations, reserve management plans, plan changes, special consultative procedures and notices of requirement.

Expertise in one or more of the following is required:

  • planning
  • resource management law
  • engineering (transport and infrastructure)
  • landscape architecture
  • ecology, biodiversity and environmental management
  • freshwater management
  • the Treaty of Waitangi and kaupapa Maori
  • community
  • coastal management
  • heritage and conservation management
  • urban design
  • air quality
  • rural planning and land management
  • waste management

 

Hearings Committee chair Councillor Linda Cooper said the council had been well served by independent commissioners in the first term. The opportunity now arose to review and refresh the pool as the council moved forward under the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan and Resource Management Act changes.

“We are entering a new planning era providing great prospects for skilled professionals and I’m sure that will be reflected in the quality of the applicants,” she added.

Two selection panels, each comprising senior managers from the council’s Democracy Services and Regional and Local Planning departments and a member of the Independent Maori Statutory Board, or person nominated by the IMSB, will present a list of preferred candidates to the Hearings Committee in May 2014.

 

Applicants should apply via www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/careers including Curriculum Vitae, a copy of their accreditation from the Ministry for the Environment, and, if they wish to be considered for a chairperson role, an example of a recent decision they have written.

Further information is available from Elizabeth McKenzie on 09 307 7557

—ends—

 

So send your applications now and be at the leading edge of helping shape Auckland’s future

 

News from Auckland Transport

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Some News from Auckland Transport

 

Two releases from Auckland Transport, one on customer service and the other on public transport patronage:

 

From AT on the Customer Service Group:

‘Customers the focus’ at Auckland Transport

Tuesday, 25 February, 2014 – 16:53

The Board of Auckland Transport today established a Customer Focus Committee (CFC), which will drive continuous customer service and customer experience improvements throughout the business.

Mark Gilbert (pictured), who has a background in senior management that incorporated marketing and customer service roles, will Chair the committee.

He says it will provide oversight and advice on a range of initiatives from project planning and market research to implementation. A major priority is an increase in public transport patronage. “Our overarching vision is to put an excellent customer experience at the heart of everything we do” he says.

“We aim to provide outstanding customer service, every time and be a trusted and positive contributor to the lives of all Aucklanders.“That means a greater emphasis on customer needs and wants no matter what part of the organisation or its services they are engaging with.” The CFC is a full committee of the Board, with all AT Directors invited to attend. It will meet monthly, beginning in March.

—-ends—

 

And on the Public Transport Patronage (AT’s report is below the presser):

Jump in Auckland public transport patronage

Tuesday, 25 February, 2014 – 16:40

January saw a jump of three point three per cent in the number of people using public transport in Auckland. The number of trips on rail was up seven point six per cent in January compared to the same month last year.

Auckland Transport’s Group Manager, Public Transport, Mark Lambert says the increase for rail is pleasing considering the disruption to services in January because of on-going work to electrify the rail network.The Northern Express bus service saw a rise in patronage of seven per cent, while the number using all other bus services was up just under five per cent compared to January 2013. Auckland Transport has been running promotions to encourage more people on the North Shore to use the Northern Express. Ferry patronage was down in January. One of the reasons for the drop in the numbers using ferries was the poor weather over the holiday period.

On an average weekday some 236,000 trips are taken on public transport in the region and Aucklanders are now travelling on more than 200,000 AT HOP cards.

 

The Accompanying Report

 

Council Submission to Unitary Plan

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You Can Hear Those Deliberations This Thursday

 

As I made a brief note in the Main Council to Review CCOs this morning as well as in Unitary Plan Update last week, Auckland Council is preparing its submission to the Unitary Plan.

From Auckland Council:

Council to finalise submission on Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan

 

Auckland Council’s submission on the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan will be finalised in open council meetings this week.

A draft of the submission will be discussed at the Unitary Plan Committee tomorrow. Committee chair Alf Filipaina says the scale and size of the proposed plan, and the new legislation that guides the submission and hearings process, meant a council submission was appropriate.

“Following notification, the next step was to go back and review everything in the proposed plan. Our submission covers the corrections and refinements found in this review, but not policy changes, as it is up to Aucklanders to have their say on the proposed plan and make their own suggestions for changes.”

All submissions on the plan need to be in by 5pm on Friday 28 February. These will then be coded and published online by the end of May, along with summary reports of the decisions requested in them.

There will then be a round of further submissions in mid-2014, where people will have an opportunity to address any of the points raised – including those raised in the council submission – to say whether or not they agree.

Councillor Filipaina says, “The further submissions phase is all about people having a chance to look at what others have said and respond. It’s especially useful if someone has said something that affects your property – it’s then your opportunity to get what you think across to the hearings panel.”

The Auckland Unitary Plan Independent Hearings Panel, led by Judge David Kirkpatrick, will set out the process for the hearings once it has assessed the volume and extent of submissions, as well as the topics they cover.

 

Issues covered in the council submission include:

  • –       More accurately defining Public Open Space zones
  • –       Addressing inconsistencies in the zoning of some parcels of land based on flood risk data
  • –       Clarification of how provisions that protect sites of value to mana whenua should be interpreted
  • –       Amending some of the extent of Significant Ecological Areas, where these are found to no longer be appropriate
  • –       Including new precincts and/or rules  as a result of recent Environment Court decisions
  • –       Correcting areas of inconsistent numbering
  • –       Corrections to some heritage overlays
  • –       Correcting zoning errors for some individual sites

 

The council website – www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/unitaryplan – has a range of material Aucklanders can use to find out more about the plan and help them to have their say:

—ends—

Agenda containing the Council’s submission

 

My Own Submission

 

 

Main Council to Review CCOs

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Council Controlled Organisations to be reviewed

 

As Mayor Len Brown said in the elections last year, the Council Controlled Organisations (the CCO’s) were to be reviewed by the main Council. The CCO’s include (but not limited to):

  • Auckland Transport
  • Watercare
  • Auckland Council Investment Limited
  • Auckland Council Property Limited
  • Waterfront Auckland
  • ATEED

From Auckland Council on the review:

Council to review super-city organisations

24/02/2014

Auckland councillors will be asked to approve the draft terms of reference and timeline for a wide-ranging review of Council-Controlled Organisations (CCOs) at the next Governing Body meeting on 27 February, says Mayor Len Brown. The draft terms of reference can be found here (item 12, page 9).

Len Brown said: “Our CCOs deliver a huge range of services for Aucklanders, from water management, to major events, through to the big improvements we’re making in public transport. We need to ensure that as ratepayer owned and funded organisations, they are as lean and efficient as possible, with no waste and no duplication of effort.”

A key election pledge from Len Brown, the CCO review will aim to ensure Aucklanders are getting value for money from the seven council controlled organisations set up during amalgamation, and that they are fully accountable to ratepayers and elected representatives.

Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse, Chair of the CCO Governance and Monitoring Committee said:

“Having had three years to work with the CCOs, we are at an ideal point to assess how well CCOs are performing on behalf of our communities, and to look at potential changes where they are needed across council. The review will assess what worked well in the first term and what we could do better going forward.
 
“It is very important that while the review is going on we continue to work with our CCOs to deliver for Auckland.”

Councillors, local board members, CCOs and the Independent Maori Statutory Board have all been given an opportunity to provide feedback on the review’s draft terms of reference. These groups have also contributed to the development of two CCO current state assessment reports that councillors will receive ahead of the Governing Body meeting.

The seven CCOs are Auckland Tourism Events Economic Development (ATEED), Auckland Transport (AT), Watercare, Auckland Council Investments Limited (ACIL), Auckland Council Property Limited (ACPL), Waterfront Auckland, and Regional Facilities Auckland (RFA).

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http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/newseventsculture/OurAuckland/mediareleases/Pages/CouncilToReviewSuper-CityOrganisations.aspx

 

The Governing Body Agenda which outlines the Terms of Reference for the CCO Review (and the Governing Body’s submission to the Unitary Plan)

 

Another post will be drawn up on the Council’s Unitary Plan Submission

 

How About Some Savings and Adjustments Before New Taxes

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NZCID Not Really Making its Case Palatable with Auckland Citizens

 

The New Zealand Council of Infrastructure Development (NZCID) commissioned an independent “review” into an apparent lack of city shaping infrastructure. The report by the international consulting firm SGS Economics and Planning is embedded as a PDF at the bottom of this post.

Below is the subsequent press release from NZCID on the “review:”

Study identifies “lack of city shaping infrastructure investment”

Friday, 21 February, 2014 – 17:51

An independent review of Auckland’s planning framework by international consulting firm SGS Economics and Planning released today identifies a lack of city shaping infrastructure investment as the principal impediment to achieving a quality compact city. The report recommends that the productivity benefit from investment, demand management and urban intensification needs to establish the case for expanded co-investment and policy reform by Central Government.

“We commissioned this study to gain a better understanding of how successfully programmes, policies and investment plans developed over the past three years by the Council are delivering on the Auckland Plan vision to make the city the World’s Most Liveable,” said Stephen Selwood CEO of the New Zealand Council for Infrastructure Development.

“SGS found that governance reforms have equipped Auckland with the most evolved metropolitan governance structure of any city in Australasia.

“Auckland has a united voice on regional issues and has the critical mass to make trajectory shifting decisions in its own right.

“The Auckland Plan sets out a compelling and demonstrably achievable vision for Auckland’s spatial development.

“However, SGS found that the Auckland Plan objective of a quality compact city was unlikely to be achieved without increased investment in city shaping infrastructure, identification of the means to fund that investment and policy reform to support road pricing and value capture mechanisms.

“On current plans there simply is not sufficient investment in transport infrastructure to support a transition to an efficient and competitive higher density urban form, Selwood said.

“To reverse many decades of low-density, motor-vehicle oriented growth will take much more than the city rail link and other projects prioritised in the Auckland Plan.

“This finding helps explain why transport modelling of future land use and transport investment completed last year showed Auckland’s congestion worsening significantly over the course of the next thirty years, even with all proposed investment committed.

“But rather than retracting the compact city vision, SGS call for analysis of the productivity benefit that is expected from urban transformation. Where the Auckland Plan vision can be shown to boost national productivity, GDP and aggregate tax revenues there is a strong case for co-investment from central government. Increased economic performance more generally also substantiates the case for new funding sources, such as road pricing and value capture, which are key to achieving the Auckland Plan vision.

“Better understanding of these benefits may also help foster community and local board support, which has so far been an impediment to the scale of intensification proposed.

“We hope that this report will stimulate a joint Government and Council work programme to identify the productivity dividend that can be achieved through optimal investment in city shaping infrastructure. In NZCID’s view, this requires vast improvement in integrating transport investment and land use development, including more targeted densification to support major investment in public transport, and implementation of road pricing and value capture mechanisms.

“While the united Auckland Council is making great progress, stronger alignment and unity of purpose between central government and the Council is needed if the productive potential of Auckland is to be truly realised,” Selwood says.

Source: http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/study-identifies-lack-city-shaping-infrastructure-investment/5/182215

—ends—

 

Long story short I rather have some savings done first with our gold-plated transport infrastructure investment program (the Integrated Transport Program) before we start playing around searching for new “taxes.”

Transport Blog spells out the case with their Congestion Free Network case on how to achieve those savings that would not require such extra taxes as the NZCID are promoting. Further more the Congestion Free Network while being cheaper actually helps de-congest Auckland’s Transport network where the current ITP proposals that have a current $15 billion funding gap (and what the NZCID want (the ITP)) while congestion still gets worse in 2030…

I wonder if NZCID like the Chamber of Commerce are annoyed after the East-West Link gold-plated proposal got scaled back significantly after people power convinced AT to do that scale back. Suppose we will never know as such.

 

The SGS Review

 

Auckland Economic Performance Improving #1

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Auckland Council “Investments” Performing Well

 

The Mayor delivered a speech this morning to the Greater East Tamaki Business Association on Auckland’s Economy improving and set to boom. I will be getting a post up on that speech later. In the mean time you might have seen in the media this morning Port of Auckland, and Precinct Properties posting their results.

From Auckland Council on those results:

Waterfront businesses leading the way in Auckland’s economic transformation 

A boost in profits for two key Auckland companies shows the economic potential that the central city and waterfront can offer Auckland, say Mayor Len Brown and Councillor Penny Webster chair of the Finance and Performance Committee. The pair welcomed the Ports of Auckland announcement today that its half-yearly net profit after tax is up 70 per cent. It comes the day after Precinct Properties announced a 67 per cent lift for the same period.  Len Brown said: “These results reinforce the opportunities we are seeing for transformative growth in Auckland’s economy. Ports of Auckland has taken great strides to increase its productivity and output over the past year, and as a result ratepayers will benefit from an interim dividend of $20.94m.

 

“Precinct Properties is a great example of the private sector keen to work with the council in the transformation of the city – bringing significant new investments and an enthusiasm to align their developments with the CRL.” 

Penny Webster said: “I’m very pleased with the Ports result on the back of the Auckland International Airport dividend. The interim dividend is nearly double last year’s, with steadily increasing freight volumes as POA has begun to see the benefits of its restructuring. ” 

Both welcomed Precinct Properties’ discussions with Waterfront Auckland to be potentially involved in Wynyard Central, a key element of the regeneration of Auckland’s downtown waterfront.

—–ends—-

 

That Auckland still has a way to go before its economic performance is where it should be.

 

Auckland Transport to Review Berm Policy

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One More Time with the Berms

 

Auckland Transport dropped a release this afternoon stating it was actively reviewing its berm policy.

From Voxy:

Auckland Transport reviewing berms policy

Friday, 14 February, 2014 – 13:43

Auckland Transport is reviewing its policy and guidelines for planting of vegetation on grass berms.

The current policy is that planting is not permitted as it may create safety hazards (impairing sight lines, covering signage etc); cause damage to underground services such as sewerage, water and power; and increase on-going road corridor maintenance costs, if planting is abandoned by the homeowner.

Auckland Transport Chief Operations Officer, Greg Edmonds, says the organisation is aware of a number of residents and businesses who have planted berms outside their property.

“We will not take any action in terms of removal whilst we are reviewing the policy unless those plantings pose a very real safety risk”, he says.

“We will be taking a customer-focussed and pragmatic approach to our review, in consultation with Auckland Council; however safety for road users, pedestrians and cyclists will be paramount as will be managing the cost of on-going road corridor maintenance.”

—ends—

Source: http://www.voxy.co.nz/lifestyle/auckland-transport-reviewing-berms-policy/5/181537

 

Lets hope a more pragmatic policy comes out of the review. Providing health and safety of fellow road users is not compromised, and that the modified berm is maintained then I see no issue with berm plantings – which are common in the EU and North America.