Auckland’s leaders need to finally unify on housing intensification plans – Editorial
Thankfully, Auckland Council had the conviction, just, to send out two versions of Plan Change 120 to the city’s local boards and iwi for consultation.
If that council governing body vote in June had gone a different way it could have quietly restricted zoning rules for a third of New Zealand’s population for years to come.
But as we saw on Monday, there is an appetite in the community for a city sensibly zoned for greater housing density.
A public briefing revealed what Auckland’s 21 local boards thought of the two Plan Change 120 scenarios they had an opportunity to give feedback on.
The more progressive version, Scenario B, predominated in their recommendations, although there were some slight compromises towards the option that favoured the status quo.
Local boards endorsed rezoning to allow for 10- and 15-storey apartment towers to be built at inner train stations along the Western, Eastern and Southern rail lines.
Six-storey developments would also be permitted along the busiest bus routes.
As a compromise, building heights at 14 hubs located more than 10km outside the city centre would be reduced to six storeys. So-called local centres – strips with a dairy or fish and chip shop – would also be excluded from six-storey development.
The feedback is telling because almost half of Auckland councillors voted to only send out the more conservative Scenario A to local board consultation back on June 9.
If that had occurred, local boards would have been restricted to commenting on zoning changes around just five Western Line train stations. It would also have excluded zoning changes around public transport arteries described as Frequent Transit Network corridors.
This would have been a further dilution of Plan Change 120.
Initially, Auckland Council was instructed to allow for two million homes, but that was wound back to 1.4 million in March by Housing and RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop.
Council planning committee chairman Richard Hills said on Monday that changing demands from the Government and repeated returns to the drawing board had people feeling like they were in a “washing machine”.
Let’s hope the sputtering ends this week.
Auckland councillors will vote late on Tuesday to send the above version of Plan Change 120 out to public consultation - a process that will take another 12 months.
But there is no reason to doubt the local boards reflect the sentiment of a majority of Aucklanders.
Because if there is one issue which local board members are most scrutinised by their constituents, it is building and public land decisions.
Nimbyism, for better or worse, is an ever-present influence around the local board table.