Does our Urban Development Minister understand the concepts of the Unitary Plan With the amount of hysterics over Capital Gains Tax happening at the moment a more critical announcement concerning … Continue reading Bye Bye Rural Urban Boundary and Hello Infrastructure Commission?
I am observing the Unitary Plan hearings currently under way in which the Panel is covering ‘Urban Growth.’
Currently the full panel is hammering Auckland Council over both the Rural Urban Boundary itself as well as Greenfield releases. Specifically around how the releases would be done and would the releases mitigate against land banking.
But the big revelation came from Council after Panel Member Shepard (http://www.aupihp.govt.nz/profiles/#panel) finally managed to get out them this:
Council to the Panel: “we’ve (Auckland Council) always been reactive and not having the budgets to service development”
Council was long warned on both those particular matters especially being reactive rather than proactive around infrastructure provisions. I distinctly remember early in the Unitary Plan debates in 2013 that we should be proactive rather than reactive with infrastructure provisions (amongst other things) but our Deputy Mayor, and Chief Planning Officer didn’t want a bar of it for being afraid of running into infrastructure surpluses rather than deficits as current.
In my opinion being proactive would not result in an infrastructure surplus. To get that you need a total economic collapse like the USA went through with the Global Financial Crisis which killed off many new Greenfield developments still sitting idle today and giving rise to that surplus. Auckland right now is not teetering on such collapses so we should be getting proactive rather than be reactive which proves to be more expensive as the Council is commenting now on not having the budgets.
Well this is interesting:
Fuller: Has there been a detailed economic study on house price on the compact urban form?
Fairgray No
No wonder why Council has at the moment buried the Cost of Growth Study until next year after it was meant to be released this month. It seems Council has NOT done any detailed economic studies on house prices via the compact city model….
Lessons for Sydney here as it embarks on its own Sydney Plan (A Plan For Growing Sydney)
Just as the Deputy Mayor prescribes However, the debate over up and out continues. I did catch the piece from Macro-Business earlier today over Auckland’s up and out debate. … Continue reading A Little Bit Up and a Little Bit Out
The Southern Rural Boundary – What I would like to see Having started with a general overview on what I would like to see in the operative Unitary Plan … Continue reading Next Week on Talking Auckland
This is a reference to quick easy access to the some of the paper trail that is being presented in the now 5-day Unitary Plan proceedings.
Remember for fast updates on the day’s proceedings, keep tabs with @BenRoss_AKL on Twitter.
What is passed here makes up the UP that goes out for formal notification
Broken down by PDF and in chapters and sub chapters
http://www.filefactory.com/f/c610f210fe21fea0
I will get presentations up by the weekend. Councillor Hartly’s defeated amendments I will upload on request.
I am no fan of the Much-Ado-About-Nothing (aka the Housing) Accord as it short cuts the Rural Urban Boundary processes we are going through right now, and it also impinges on Council Sovereignty. I have made mention of this last month while the Unitary Plan was open for the first round of discussion.
Auckland Council, some Local Boards and the Independent Maori Statutory Board have written draft submissions on the Accord which is due to go before Select Committee in Wellington.
I am still reading the submission Council has written myself and will comment on it on Monday. In the mean time some light reading for you and if you are inclined leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Talking Southern Auckland 