The Clunker and Me

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Where Ben is for the next round of Unitary Plan Community Meetings

 

One thing that I have been doing with the Unitary Plan is that I have been travelling as much as I can around the city attending the Unitary Plan community meetings. At these community meetings I will usually take a seat and take notes while observing the meeting quietly. Once the meeting is done I will often go one to one with either: planners, councillors, Local Board members, the Deputy Mayor (no luck there yet 😛 ), and/or residents and discuss aspects of the Unitary Plan at both local and regional level. Sometimes I might put forward my alternative to get the creative juices flowing in which the residents will have a very good yarn (a productive one at that) on what they like to see both local and regional, as well as concerns (often transport and over-intensification in the centres).

The following day I will usually follow-up with BR:AKL commentary and a round of “spam” on social media depending on what is going on with The Clunker.

Next week I return back to my home in Southern Auckland with the next round of community meetings focusing in the Manurewa and Papakura Local Board areas. Between now and May 1 I have four meetings to attend to here in the south followed by a presentation that I am going to be giving in Orakei next month on – yep The Unitary Plan. Also I have my usual Transport Committee and Auckland Transport Board meetings I trundle along too as well as I keep the spotlight still shining in that particular direction

So this is where I will be between April 15 and May 1

  • April 15 – Monday: Karaka Hall on most likely the RUB, existing urban development, and transport. With the Karaka Collective from this area and in support of the Karaka North and West RUB development option, and the Weymouth-Karaka Bridge; we should be hearing from them in putting their argument forward why those options should happen. 
  • April 16 – Tuesday: Council Transport Committee at Town Hall. Some developments and going-ons need to be kept tabs of especially around the Manukau South (Rail) Link and our flagging rail patronage. While I am not speaking this time around I will be sure to remind AT and the Committee of the situations.
  • April 17 – Wednesday:  Telstra Clear Events Centre (now Vodafone Events Centre) with the topics on intensification and transport. Manurewa town centre being classed as a Town Centre (so up to eight storeys) in the Unitary Plan is bound to stir the over-intensification debate there. As for transport – well getting reliable and accessible public transport would be a nice start for most of the community. 
  • April 18 – Thursday: Weymouth Primary School on round two of the Unitary Plan and transport – more to the point that Karaka-Weymouth Bridge. I will be in attendance for that one as I have commented on this very extensively here at BR:AKL previously and gone one to one with planners and residents over this. Now I do have an alternative to stave off this bridge for 30 years while still getting RUB development and even a bonus regional park if Council pulls finger. I have also been receiving documents and comments from both sides of the bridge debate either putting their case forward or clarifying a point. It is of note to the Karaka Collective at this point and time I can not support the development of Karaka North and West, nor the bridge due to both have greater detrimental affect to the wider sub-region of Southern Auckland than the benefits supposedly received if this particular option and bridge went through. However you can still state your case and try to convince me on how the benefits would out-weight the costs.
  • May 1 – Wednesday: Alfriston Hall on zoning. Oh those residential and business zones are causing so much grief and debate across Auckland through the draft Unitary Plan it is not funny. Time to have a good thrashing analysis of these zones and get some sense and sanity back into them so that we can truly get a more liveable city
  • May 2 – Orakei (confirmed): Presentation on Special Character Zones – how the one size fits all brush in regards to centres will not work and the introduction of The Special Character Zone.

 

 

Unitary Plan commentary continues as does my actual submission to this part of the Unitary Plan feedback process as the plan draws closer to be coming operative (whenever that might be).

 

BEN ROSS : AUCKLAND

BR:AKL: Bring Well Managed Progress

The Unitary Plan: Bringing Change

Auckland: 2013 – OUR CITY, OUR CALL

Figures on Auckland Land Use

· 2 Comments ·

What Percentage is Our Land Used For

 

I sent a question to Auckland Council on what proportion of our land was used in what per Unitary Plan definitions. After the council geo-spatial specialists crunched some numbers this is what was sent back to me:

From Shape Auckland (shapeauckland.co.nz)

 

Our Geospatial specialists have looked into this for you. I’ve included the breakdown of all the zones since it makes quite interesting reading.
Unitary Plan Zone (%)

 

  • Single House 2.89
  • Mixed Housing 3.52
  • Terrace Housing and Apartment Building 0.49
  • Large lot 0.77
  • Rural and Coastal Settlement 0.39
  • Neighbourhood Centre 0.03
  • Local Centre 0.04
  • Town Centre 0.09
  • Metropolitan Centre 0.08
  • City Centre 0.11
  • Mixed Use 0.20
  • Business Park 0.02
  • General Business 0.05
  • Light Industry 0.94
  • Heavy Industry 0.37
  • Rural Coastal 16.66
  • Rural Conservation 2.52
  • Rural Production 47.41
  • Mixed Rural 1.79
  • Countryside Living 5.84
  • Marina 0.04
  • Minor Port 0.01
  • Mooring 0.30
  • Public Open Space – Conservation 7.24
  • Public Open Space – Informal Recreation 1.76
  • Public Open Space – Civic & Community 0.02
  • Public Open Space – Sport & Active Recreation 0.64
  • Special Purpose 1.08
  • Future Urban 0.28
  • Strategic Transport Corridor 0.59
  • Road 3.84

 

A thank you and appreciation to Auckland Council and their geo-spatial specialists for compiling that data. And yes it does make for an interesting read, especially when road dwarfs out quite a bit of the individual urban zones.

 

I shall tell a look at these numbers some more and ponder over them but for the most part, well over of 60% of our land is not urbanised.

 

 

Outline for Submission to Unitary Plan

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My Submission to The Unitary Plan

 

As May 31 – the deadline to get in your feedback to the Draft Unitary Plan approaches, I have been slowly assembling all my bits and pieces and begun writing my submission for the Draft Unitary Plan a.k.a The Clunker.

However, with The Draft Unitary Plan covering some 1700 odd pages included 510 of those pages being large-scale maps it is near impossible by myself to comment on every single aspect of The Clunker. So I have narrowed down the submission to key points of interest to me in regards to wider Auckland.

Version 1.0 of my submission to The Draft Unitary Plan will cover thus far:

  1. Why I am covering the respective points here in this feedback document
  2. Brief recap on The Draft Unitary Plan as it currently stands
  3. 400,000 homes and one million people – where are they going to go?
  4. My Housing Mix using the shapeauckland.co.nz Housing Simulator
  5. The Zones: My Alternative to the Unitary Plan Zones using work from my Auckland Plan submission – this will include:
    1. Implementing the Centralised Master Community Plan (CMCP), the Semi-Liberal Plan Districts (SLPD), and the Municipal Utility District (MUD)
    2. Reworking the zones including adding, deleting, or modifications to the Unitary Plan Zones using zone definitions from my submission to the Auckland Plan
  6. Over Intensification with the centres – who gets upgraded and who gets downgraded. Also covered is redrawing the height restrictions imposed on some centres
  7. Manukau and St Heliers; special places deserve special recognition as one size does not fit all with the Unitary Plan
  8. CMCP’s and SLPD’s and applying them to select individual places in Auckland as examples of my alternative in regards to the Unitary Plan. Papakura and the Southern Rural Urban Boundary Greenfield sites will be two of the examples used
  9. The Rural Urban Boundary in Southern Auckland:
    1. Which of the three options per the Rural Urban Boundary Addendum
    2. Why I chose that particular RUB option
    3. How it would work (this will tie in with Point 8) and its effects to wider Auckland
    4. How it affects me personally
  10. Observed Transport issues stemming from the Unitary Plan. The Auckland Transport Integrated Transport Plan will be mentioned here
  11. Other infrastructure (including social) issues stemming from the Unitary Plan
  12. Any other notes and observations from the Unitary Plan
  13. Conclusion(s)

Urban design will be covered in multiple points rather than just one set specific point.

 

Even this is quite a bit to cover so I better get cracking with the writing. In the mean time I will continue my jet setting around the city participating and observing Unitary Plan community meetings (which I do have an opinion of as of current) and any more Civic Forums if they come up.

 

But for now I need to go book another holiday – I need it – or focus my spotlight back on my favourite crowd who must be wondering “What’s Up;” – Hehe Auckland Transport I am still here 😉

 

My Housing Mix from The Auckland Council Housing Simulator (Attempt One using Shape Auckland Housing Simulator)

 

What I came up with to give my take
What I came up with to give my take

 

That Letter

· 1 Comment ·

The Letter The Herald is Banging On About

 

I have a copy of that letter the Herald article “Compact city rulebook hits wall” talks about. You can read it in the embed below and post your reactions accordingly. BR:AKL is of the belief that this is going too fast – the Unitary Plan consultation rounds, but I do disagree with Central Government and delaying the Clunker by three years. One extra year should be adequate enough at the ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM before it gets drawn out beyond a joke.

 

That Letter

 

Other reactions from me with The Unitary Plan can be found else where on this blog