Tag: Auckland

Unitary Plan Huh?

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Interesting Provision for Planning Officers during the Unitary Plan Hearings

 

I have a lot of time for Bob Dey who is a veteran writer on Auckland issues (as well as other matters). Bob is often on the media table alongside me and others when we are “doing our thing” on reporting on these Auckland issues. I can safely say Bob does not have much time for “bollocks” that can go on, something I have little time for either.

I picked up on one of Bob’s own blog posts proceedings at the most recent Unitary Plan Committee meeting (the Committee that provides directions to planning officers while the Unitary Plan Independent Hearings happen) something that I found odd and Bob most certainly did. Might get an email flicked to Council seeking clarification.

From Bob Dey’s Property Report

Key unitary plan issues listed

on Sunday 6 July 2014 in Land use, Planning, Sectors, Spatial plan 0
Auckland Council plan development manager JohnDuguid has set out a list of key unitary plan issues – from the council perspective – based on initial submissions. It might change once the period for further submissions closes on 22 July.Biggest topic is zoning, particularly residential zoning.

9400 submitters have raised almost 100,000 submission points. Mr Duguid says in a report for the council’s unitary plan committee on Tuesday as many as 700 topics might require a hearing.

The council is in a different position from usual at the unitary plan hearings, which will be before an independent panel, will involve prehearing meetings & mediation and will see the council staff not as advisors to the panel but as submitters.

Estimates are that prehearing meetings will start in September and the hearings will start in November, ending in April 2016.

Just to keep the process rolling, the council’s unitary plan committee has to agree to positions to be adopted at prehearings, mediation and during the formal hearings. Submitting parties will have to do the same, or the process won’t be completed within the 2016 deadline for hearings to be completed.

…

One unusual admission in Mr Duguid’s report – on which he didn’t elaborate – is that “there may be situations where council staff are unable to support the council’s position (as directed by the unitary plan committee). Should this occur, attempts will be made to find a consultant who is able to support the council’s position. The committee does, however, need to be aware that such a situation could result in the council’s position being set out at the hearings without any supporting expert evidence.”

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Source: http://www.propbd.co.nz/key-unitary-plan-issues-listed/

 

The Committee Paper has it here: 9 Unitary plan, update [point 17]

Okay can someone in Council explain what this means please as this seem perplexing.

 

 

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.

 

—ends—

 

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.