Category: News

A News Post on something that has happened

Fourth Tranche of Special Housing Areas Announced

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Council and Government Announces Fourth Tranche for the SHA’s

 

Yesterday Mayor Len Brown, and Housing Minister Nick Smith announced the fourth trance of the Special Housing Areas.

From Auckland Council

New Special Housing Areas announced

Friday 12 September 2014

A fourth tranche of 17 Special Housing Areas (SHAs) that could yield more than 8000 new homes across Auckland has been announced by Housing Minister Dr Nick Smith and Auckland Mayor Len Brown.

“The Auckland Housing Accord was agreed 11 months ago and since then, it has facilitated thousands more sections to be developed and thousands more homes to be built,” says Dr Smith.

“The latest tranche brings the total number of Special Housing Areas in Auckland to 80, with a potential yield of 41,500 homes. This is the momentum and scale we need to improve housing affordability and supply in our largest city.”

“The Special Housing Areas are making a real difference to the number of homes developers are building and planning to build at a range of different price points,” says Mayor Len Brown.

“The council is seeing an exciting pipeline of construction activity that will result in quality residential neighbourhoods in 2015 and beyond.”

“The successful effect of the Housing Accord is obvious in the latest building consent figures, which show 7119 consents were issued in Auckland in the year to July. This represents an annual rate of growth of 30 per cent – the highest in a decade,” says Dr Smith.

“The government’s KiwiSaver HomeStart initiative complements the Special Housing Areas by providing an incentive for builders to construct more homes in an affordable range. The scheme provides $20,000 grants for first-home buyers who have been in KiwiSaver for five years to purchase homes under $550,000 and provides Welcome Home Loans that enable purchases with a 10 per cent deposit,” he says.

The Auckland Housing Accord, agreed last year by Dr Smith and Mr Brown, provides for the creation of SHAs by Auckland Council with the approval of the government. Qualifying developments in these areas can be streamlined and fast-tracked.

The 17 new SHAs have been adopted by Auckland Council but are subject to formal approval by Cabinet and a recommendation to the Governor-General.

The new SHAs are located in Northcote, Mount Wellington, Papakura, Orakei, Pine Hill, Mount Eden, Avondale, Hingaia, Birkenhead, Ellerslie, Avondale, Whenuapai, Mount Albert, Takapuna, Tamaki, and Orewa.

Visit our SHA page for more details.

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Source: http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/newseventsculture/OurAuckland/News/Pages/newspecialhousingareasannounced.aspx

More on the Fourth SHA Tranche

September 2014

The overview map shows the fourth set of 17 SHAs. Click individual area names below for more site specific information.

September 2014 overview map (PDF 2MB)

Auckland Council has recommended the following areas. They are now subject to formal approval by Cabinet and a recommendation to the Governor-General.

This overview map showing the fourth set of 17 SHAs. The area names below for more area specific information.

Akoranga Drive, Northcote
Barrack Road, Mt Wellington
Bellfield Road, Papakura

Bellfield Road, Papakura (PDF 587KB) [I have opened the Papakura SHA as an example]

The former Papakura Golf Course, and adjoining property at 117 Opaheke Road which borders the new Opaheke Park, will eventually accommodate approximately 350 homes in an area of high demand.

The new owner of the properties, Motleon Limited, the Principal of whom is Sir Noel Robinson, has embarked upon a master-planned development of the properties that will integrate with Opaheke Park.

As part of the development, Motleon will pay to uplift a public encumbrance on the former golf course property. That money will be spent on improvements and facilities at Opaheke Park to benefit the local community.

Motleon is undertaking detailed storm water modelling, and other technical work, in order to be able to progress consents for the development the land.

Bunnythorpe Road, Papakura
Coates Avenue, Orakei
East Coast Road, Pine Hill
Enfield Street, Mt Eden
Corner Great North Road and Walsall Street, Avondale
Harbourside Drive, Hingaia
Mokoia Road, Birkenhead
Morrin Street, Ellerslie
Racecourse Parade, Avondale
Redhills (Fred Taylor Drive) – Stage 1, Whenuapai
St Lukes Road, Mt Albert
Takapuna Strategic SHA
Tamaki Regeneration Area
West Hoe Heights, Orewa

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Source: http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/en/ratesbuildingproperty/housingsupply/pages/specialhousingareas.aspx

 

The Overview of the SHA Tranches thus far

Note: This does not include the four developers that have walked away from the Special Housing Areas recently (Special Housing Areas Already in Trouble?)

 

The Bellfield Road SHA

 

More on the SHA’s when I cover the Business Land situation later on.

 

Prime Minister Endorses Sky Path

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National Warm on Skypath

 

http://getacross.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/skypath.png

The Prime Minister, and Mayor Len Brown opened the Grafton Gully Cycleway this morning.

While I was not there I have seen plenty of photos of the event (when Spark does not keep dropping my internet out). One thing that caught my attention was this:

The Prime Minister has endorsed Skypath which is better than the two North Shore National Electorate MP’s as well as Ward Councillor George Wood who all seem to be trying to throw spanners into Skypath’s progress

I asked what did it mean when the PM endorsed Skypath and it was said:

 

So nothing full committal but if National gets their Third Term the Government might via NZTA give some assistance in getting Skypath built. That is fine whether the Government fully funds it or sticks with the Public Private Partnership which means a toll, I am not particular fussed.

But good to see the PM come out and have a ride down the Cycleway after which he gave a warm response to Skypath.

 

As they say: “Good things take time”

 

Port of Auckland increase Port Rail Shuttle Services

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Now running 16 services a week

 

From Voxy

Ports of Auckland increases freight rail service

Tuesday, 2 September, 2014 – 12:29

 

Working with KiwiRail, Ports of Auckland has doubled the rail services between its Waitematā seaport and Wiri Intermodal Freight Hub.

The increased service starts this week and will bring the port to the doorstep of importers and exporters in South Auckland, potentially reducing the number of trucks coming into the seaport and opening up more space to handle growing volumes.

Ports of Auckland General Manager Commercial Relationships Craig Sain said, “This is just the beginning. With our developments in Palmerston North and Wiri, we’re on our way to make more effective and increased use of rail to improve our service offering.”

“Containers moved by rail was up by 64% in 2013/14, but it is still a small percentage of the total containers coming through the port. We’d like to see this number grow over the coming years,” he said.

In 2010, with the opening of the Wiri Intermodal Freight Hub, KiwiRail ran four services of 23 wagons a week in each direction. Over time, this number increased to eight services and starting today there will be sixteen services a week.

“There is ample capacity on the line to the Port to increase services further and we will continue to work with KiwiRail to get the most out of the line,” Mr Sain said.

KiwiRail General Manager Sales – Freight Alan Piper said, “Ports of Auckland’s drive to increasingly move freight by rail to its Wiri inland port has seen a rapid increase in growth of daily services this year. This is a great example of KiwiRail working closely with its customers and provide flexible growth capacity to enable more use of rail to transport goods around the country.”

The Wiri Intermodal Freight Hub is operated by CONLINXX, a subsidiary of Ports of Auckland and offer greater efficiencies and flexibility for exporters and importers who are able to drop off and pick up containers without having to negotiate the Auckland motorways.

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Source: http://www.voxy.co.nz/business/ports-auckland-increases-freight-rail-service/5/200972

 

Something I will keep in the back of my mind as I head up to Town Hall on Thursday and will be bringing up the Manukau South Link at the time.

 

Unitary Plan Hearings Under-Way

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Day One Begins

 

From Auckland Council

Hearings on shaping Auckland’s development underway

 

New Zealand’s largest planning review gets underway in Auckland today with an Independent Hearings Panel beginning its deliberations on Auckland Council’s  Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan.

The hearing is before Environment Court judge, David Kirkpatrick who chairs the Panel, and seven panel members. There are also 15 mediators and facilitators who will help resolve issues through expert conference and mediation.

The Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan sets the rules about how the Auckland region will develop over decades, including what can be built and where, and how to protect the environment and Auckland’s built and cultural heritage.

More than 9500 submissions were made on the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan.  The Panel will consider the views of submitters – plus a further 3500 submitters who have responded to the original submissions – over 74 topics.

Judge Kirkpatrick said the hearing is the biggest ever in New Zealand planning history because it involves the Regional Policy Statement and both the Regional and District Plan documents all wrapped up  in one document.

“There’s been a huge number of submissions and a high level of public participation – and that’s a good thing for such an important document,” said Judge Kirkpatrick.

He said the requirements of the Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Act made this hearing different from the traditional adversarial planning hearing. The Act has a requirement that the Panel use pre-hearing processes and mediation to help identify the most appropriate planning position for the Auckland region.

“So there’s a large level of the ‘Good of the Auckland region’ objective here rather than simply saying which side wins and which side loses,” said Judge Kirkpatrick.

“With the complex issues involved we have to have a very clear high-level regard for the sustainable management of the resources of the whole Auckland region. If we adopted a solely technical approach to our task we would ‘miss the wood for the trees’.”

He said the Panel is working to an extremely tight timeframe to complete its report to Auckland Council by July 2016 on changes it thinks should be made to the plan.

The Panel will be working through a process ‘from the general to the particular’.  It will start with the Regional Policy Statement issues such as rural/urban growth, residential and industrial growth and higher level transport issues. It will then deal with the more specific rule-based issues and then move on to the site-specific changes.

“It’s important that we have integration between the higher-level objectives and strategy of the plan and the methods on the ground,” said Judge Kirkpatrick.

“We could compromise a policy very easily by simply by having exceptions to the rules which give away its validity.”

Judge Kirkpatrick said the Panel is endeavouring where possible to come to decisions on issues when the Panel hears from submitters.

“It’s better that we do it when we hear from people, but we acknowledge that as we go through we are likely to have to go back and reconsider some of the things we have decided.

“We need to make sure that our decision-making has been consistent throughout and that the recommendations we are making to Council produce an integrated set of planning provisions.”

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The Hearings’ Order Paper

 

The Unitary Plan Independent Hearings Panel website can be found here: http://www.aupihp.govt.nz/

 

Talking Auckland will keep a roving update from the Hearings Panel as relevant information comes to hand