Auckland housing hearings halt until certainty returns

Auckland’s councillors have provided some certainty to residents on whether or not they need to be preparing for hearings on the future of intensification in areas like the former Auckland Light Rail corridor.

The National-led Government came into power on the back of strong promises around housing and transport, such as canning Auckland’s long-planned light rail and making medium density residential standards optional.

But ambiguity around the zoning ramifications of the former and an unclear timeline on the latter have left some Aucklanders in the dark on the future of intensification in areas like Mt Roskill and Onehunga.

This wasn’t helped by a letter from Minister of Housing Chris Bishop last month which a group representing over 60 resident, ratepayer and heritage groups called “confusing”.

Character Coalition chair Sally Hughes said the letter indicated Bishop wants some parts of the hearings to proceed, but it was not clear which.

She said the planning committee’s decision to allow city centre progress to continue but to halt hearings elsewhere until policies are finalised was a weight off the shoulders of many in her group.

“The option they’ve chosen will relieve a lot of community members and groups of quite a huge financial burden that may have been all for nothing,” she said.

Hughes had previously tallied costs for hearing preparations across the coalition to around $500,000.

“One of our members has already spend $100,000 on experts and getting advice,” she said. “And that would have been what a lot of other groups would have been spending. .. and if the Government goes ahead with making [the MDRS] optional then that might not even be needed.”

Meanwhile, the council itself had spent around $500,000 a month on the hearings process.

Hughes said Thursday’s vote created a clarified version of what Bishop may have been suggesting, with some aspects of the long intensification process to keep chugging along while others hold tight until everybody knows what legislation is actually on the way.

Auckland Council was recently given an extra year to set the upzoning move known as Plan Change 78, with recognition given to the greater awareness last year’s extreme weather events affected floodplain rules.

However, work on upzoning the city centre is set to continue, with councillors voting to enable an increase in the area’s development potential “as soon as practicable”.

The rationale given by planning manager John Duguid was taking the time to look at provisions around natural hazards and the extent of intensification across greater Auckland would prevent significant costs to both council and community submitters.

It’s a reprieve from a hearings process Hughes called “delayed, disjointed, expensive and unfair”.

The next step for Auckland comes in the form of Mayor Wayne Brown meeting Bishop next week. The mayor asked for Duguid to wait outside that meeting and be ready to come in and explain things simply and clearly if the need arose.

Brown emphasised his desire to represent a unified message from the region’s elected representatives to Bishop.

“I want clarity when I get in the room with this minister,” he said. “He’s very forthright and blunt. I’ve reread the [National housing policy] and I think if I’ve got to meet with a blunt person I’ve got to be blunt.”

Meanwhile, Hughes said her coalition would meet Minister for Auckland Simeon Brown on Friday to advocate the uniqueness of Auckland’s issues.

“We are not a Tauranga, we are not a Christchurch,” she said. “For us to continue with these hearings actually means hundreds more hearings than other places.”