So the Unitary plan has been released, let the tedious battle of zones and room sizes begin.
On one side there are millennials, Gen Xers, renters, beneficiaries, state house tenants, Maori, Pacific Islanders, new migrants, blue-greens who are worried their lack of property portfolio is eroding any future wealth and city planning geeks who visit Transport Blog on the hour.
On the other side are those working class first home buyers who have managed to claw their way onto the property ladder and the incredibly rich and powerful Baby Boomer property owning class who will speculate like hell in the poor suburbs but won’t allow their own slice of joy be made poorer by higher density.
So who will win?
The problem with the first group who should be pro-Unitary Plan is that the leadership within that movement are the blue-greens who are worried their lack of property portfolio is eroding any future wealth and city planning geeks who visit Transport Blog on the hour. They’re inability to explain the vision of up and out to the other millennials, Gen Xers, renters, beneficiaries, state house tenants, Maori, Pacific Islanders and new migrants is the problem here. The Blue/Greens and the city planning geeks will spout zoning proposals and civil engineering jargon that means bugger all to those they need to win over to make this a populist movement. They need to create pictures of what this urban planning will look like – show the people what the vision is, don’t fucking talk about zoning. It is boring and dull and people will lose interest.
People desperate for housing aren’t planning to build one themselves! Show them what it looks like so they can place themselves into vision.
Those anti-Unitary Plan forces will be almost unstoppable. The rich ones will set up and fund powerful lobby groups to prevent intensification. They will quickly find numerous examples of the working class first home buyer who are negatively impacted and use their faces and struggles as the main thrust of a fear campaign to build enough momentum for the 2017 national elections to demand that something must be done. They will stall and push this back until the next election so that they can influence things at a level above the SuperCity.
The anti-Unitary Plan bloc has the money and the organisation to impact and slow the Unitary Plan down to meaningless. The pro-Unitary Plan bloc has the argument and the righteous need for change, but none of the communication strategy to awake enough of their bloc to counter what is about to become a blizzard of anti-Unitary bloc propaganda.
One things for certain – some people are going to get exploited by some other people.
You got it, the Unitary Plan changes nothing much, except offers the market players, the ones with homes, wealth and money to play monopoly with, more tools and freedoms to play with. NO affordable housing will come with this, as provisions for ensuring a percentage of affordable housing will be built, have been thrown out of the window.
Also without reducing demand (immigration, overseas buying, and investor greed for owning more properties, including of course speculators), there will be no reduction in prices, unless something will burst the bubble.
That’s right Bomber, no migrants own houses or multiple houses. Simplistic. Incorrect. Propaganda. The battle for Auckland, when it comes, will be physically violent. I put my money on those with nothing to lose.
Bloody right you are there Martyn, the rich don’t know now how to be human any more due to the Government performance on compassion is at an all time low point in our history whereby as anything is o/k now, with no rules on business.
sadly we don’t have politicians who can lead by example nor act with any conscience any more sadly.
Martyn, again, pls reduce your aucklandcentricity, for the benefit of those who live (you may have heard of us?) elsewhere
The Spinoff is fired up about this and are running a special section on it.
Spinoff is run by people with heads spinning out of control, I fear, they have apparently not even read the recommendations by the IHP. Chardonnay Socialists, I fear.
On one hand this transformation of Auckland into one giant Coronation Street (inexplicable exemptions like Northcote Point, Devonport, Birkenhead Point aside) is supposed to translate into “affordable housing”, give speculators more fuel for the fire and temper Nationals policies that are behind it. On the other we’re told that land values will skyrocket as a single dwelling site is in many cases now able to offer housing at black hole density so it isn’t going to make much difference.
As John Campbell found last night, the working poor can’t even get a deposit together anyway to buy a home. Nationals cheap labour immigration policy has killed that dream.
This “plan” which I gather National had a hand in writing is nothing more than a thinly disguised blueprint for more insane property speculation and for enriching developers.
National may get their mirage of growth that may eventually come from this but with such growth increases the crushing debt to fund it. All so-called Western nations have now to stimulate their economies is playing roulette using property and borrowing off the house as chips. How finite is that?
You have got it, the Panel that was hearing the submissions and now made their recommendations, was appointed by the Minister for the Environment, a National Party Minister of course, and one may need to study the CVs and backgrounds and personal connections of the Panel members, in order to get any idea of what they favour and stand for.
But their recommendations tell me enough, that they gave in to the formidable pressures from the developer lobby, wanting loose rules, no rules if possible, and free market playgrounds.
You have missed out Judges Bay and or parts or Parnell, Remuera as well – I wonder why?? The very areas where there are very large sites which would be the logical sites for small town houses/ 4 storey apartment dwellings. The rich always have the clout and its pretty obvious that the other areas you mentioned also have MP’s reside there and other wealthy people who give donations to the National Party.
Indeed, while some parts in East Auckland and also around Westmere, Mt Eden and so have now been zoned for more intensification, bizarrely, large parts around St Stephens Ave, in Parnell, where our PM has one of his mansions, have been left Single House Zone. The same applies for much of Ponsonby, Herne Bay, Remuera and the likes.
Strange that, that the spots where the richest live, have been left out and not been considered suitable for more intensification.
I bet you, the homes of most of our Councillors here in Auckland will also be spared. The men and women in control, who impose all this on us, they live on lifestyle blocks, in large homes with large sections and with great privilege.
The Unitary Plan will only offer a few more shades of existing division between the haves and have-nots, it will make the rich richer and many more tenants in their own city, it will solve little.
“On one side there are millennials, Gen Xers, renters, beneficiaries, state house tenants, Maori, Pacific Islanders, new migrants, blue-greens who are worried their lack of property portfolio is eroding any future wealth and city planning geeks who visit Transport Blog on the hour.”
AND:
“On the other side are those working class first home buyers who have managed to claw their way onto the property ladder and the incredibly rich and powerful Baby Boomer property owning class who will speculate like hell in the poor suburbs but won’t allow their own slice of joy be made poorer by higher density.”
Well, I wish it were that simple, to draw up two “warring” factions, who are out on the field, like rugby teams, or even real warriors, to fight it out among themselves.
What about more qualified and informed thinking?
The Unitary Plan was a requirement, so we have no choice now whether we want it or not, Auckland Council was told by passed law to bring one in:
http://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2010/0037/latest/DLM3016607.html?src=qs
http://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2010/0037/latest/DLM5600657.html
The Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan was notified 30 Sept. 2013 and was going through a hearing process until recently. Now on 22 July the Independent Hearing Panel presented their “recommendations” by way of a USB stick to the Council to evaluate, and it has been published what was recommended since 27 July:
http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/planspoliciesprojects/plansstrategies/unitaryplan/Pages/ihpreportsrecommendations.aspx
Yes, I know, for some it is all ‘boring’, but that is perhaps part of the problem. The hearing was dominated by big business, developers, utility companies, local and central government agency representation, having their expert planners and lawyers present thousands of pages of documents, while the ordinary people did not give a “fuck” so to say, as very few individuals, and only poorly resourced and supported community groups took part in the whole matter.
As a consequence, the whole hearing was heavily leaning towards strong support for changes that either supported the notified provisions that Council presented, or those that wanted to go much further.
What has come out of it is a disaster. It is “recommendations” by the Panel that will please any ACT Party supporter and member, and which is not what traditional urban planners or even “lefties” may have wanted.
Sadly the debate is now dominated by either developers, economists, and also chardonnay glass swinging “urban liberals” and poorly informed left of centre fan clubs, who think it is all just about “intensification” and more public transport, no matter how it is delivered, it must be “all good”.
The devil is in the detail, and the IHP (Panel) decided to let the market rule, to have as little in rules as possible, to have as little intervention as possible, and to present a very loose, liberal recommended planning framework, that will allow developers to almost anything they wish (within a set of very basic rules).
For instance NO minimum dwelling sizes are recommended, NO dwelling mix of sorts, NO provisions for storage, NO minimum internal dimensions or floor to roof measurements, NO rules re door, window and other sizes, and so forth. There is NO provision for affordable housing now, it has all been thrown out the window, what Council proposed, so that developers are the great winners, and they will work with free market rules and investors and speculators, as they have done over recent years, and NO affordable housing will be built, all else is BS.
Only if you actually read all the recommendations will anybody get it, but sadly most rather go on about things, and do not read this:
http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/council/documents/unitaryplan/ihpoverviewofrecommendationsann1.pdf
http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/planspoliciesprojects/plansstrategies/unitaryplan/Documents/ihprecommendations/ihp013urbangrowth.pdf
http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/planspoliciesprojects/plansstrategies/unitaryplan/Documents/ihprecommendations/ihp059to063residentialzones.pdf
And this is all they have recommended to be adopted re “climate change”, dismally poor:
http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/planspoliciesprojects/plansstrategies/unitaryplan/Documents/ihprecommendations/ihp007climatechange.pdf
There is of course heaps more, and it is not all bad, but I had expected much better “recommendations” from a Panel, that would now be prime candidates to be leading members of the ACT Party, I think, as they have exposed how free market oriented they are, and how they believe in laissez faire, which will lead to future slums to be built and the ruin of large parts of Auckland with poor building mixes. I never have much trust in the huge amount of “discretion” that Council planners and consenting officers will now be given. It will be a disaster in the making.
The “battle” or “war” is already over, it is all in the hands of Councillors now, to either accept it all, only parts of it, or to simply stick with the notified version, which was also flawed.
Central government will not care, their business mates will love it, people fall for the need of it, given they have been starved of all sensible options, now facing “crisis”, they will accept anything, no matter how bad.
Seen this?
From directly-affected State tenants groups who have been leading the fight against the privatisation of STATE housing – for the benefit of commercial property developers:
FYI
_____________________________
29 July 2016
Sue Henry “The Housing Lobby and Tamaki Housing Group call on all Auckland Councillors to vote down the Proposed Auckland Unity Plan in its entirety.”
“There are no redeeming features in this plan that benefit the communities of Auckland as a whole,” says Sue Henry.
“What appears to be the case is that the hands of the property development companies have been strengthened.”
“We have already seen the devastation in Northern Glen Innes over the past five years, as the experimental ‘pilot project’ for the Auckland region.”
“The long-time existing community of home owners / tenants have been forced out, and their homes have either been land-banked, transferred to development companies, flogged off, or bull-dozed into piles of rubble.”
“What’s worse is that this area, Northern Glen Innes (“A” and “B”), particularly “B” has never been through any Council due process, and was never part of any ‘Special Housing Area’ (‘SHA’).
“The mandate given to property development companies will ultimately destroy local communities from Rodney to Franklin, and bring bonanza profits to developers, speculators and realtors.”
“All with the further blessing of tax-free capital gain.”
Sue Henry
Respect to Sue Henry and others, who stand up against the mass scale privatisation of so far state housing in Glen Innes and East Tamaki, but in all honesty, her firm stand will simply be ignored.
The Councillors will in their majority already have made their minds up, and ignore appeals for reconsideration of these recommendations from a laissez faire obsessed Hearing Panel to the Auckland Council.
There have been countless meetings between vested interest carrying players with Council planners and others involved in this process for the last two years. Intensive lobbying, especially from the developers and construction companies, besides of pressure from Wellington, have finally pressured the Panel to decide as its members did (in unison, we are told).
Money talks, and business rules, that is what we will get, the Councillors will only make minor concessions to residents affected, and for most ignore the staunch fighters like Sue and her friends, same as some others.
Hearing Christine Fletcher on Q+A this morning revealed that she will vote for most of what has been recommended, although she would not admit to it yet. She was one of the more cautious ones with reservations to the PAUP, but the few that may object, they will be the minority.
It does not matter what the people think, they are told what is “best” for them, and they will simply have to swallow it, whether they like it or not. And as we are told we have a “crisis”, there will be little remaining discussion, as the powers in control will simply shout “actions” and “get on with it”.
Disabled persons should take note that the IHP did not only throw out requirements like those Council proposed for minimum dwelling sizes and a dwelling mix for larger developments, the Hearing Panel also threw out a requirement for UNIVERSAL ACCESS!
That means, the developers will not have to meet universal access requirements, and only the rather basic Building Act 2004 and Building Code rules will need to be adhered to, that is unless there is other specific legislation forcing builders and developers to ensure that disabled access is guaranteed.
Perhaps someone can some shine more light on the latter.
Since this opens up Auckland as the new gold mine housing boom, the only 2 parties that win will be developers and investors, the only people who have had the money all along. Houses are not suddenly going to get cheaper it just means that foreign interest can buy up yet even more of this country while the regular Joe still remains a renter.
And let’s not blame the Baby Boomers, that generation worked hard, 10 years ago people could afford homes, what changed in that time? Immigration numbers and aggressive foreign investment driving demand and prices up. The BBoomer’s did not create this problem so they shouldn’t be treated as pariah’s. The government are the real culprits behind the problem and are using the Boomer’s as the fall guy for millennials to vent their frustrations at. Shame on you National.
The IHP has given a lot of consideration to the Auckland Plan, Len Brown’s dreamt out plan, to create “The most live-able city”.
It is a Plan that the Auckland Unitary Plan must give regard to, but that is all, the Panel seems to have rather thought, the Unitary Plan must give effect to the Auckland Plan.
That Auckland Plan was the blueprint for managing a growing city, that means house a large number of additional citizens, which includes of course immigrants.
It rather looks that Council and big business have since then pursued an agenda, to grow Auckland, by preparing it to house up to 2.5 million people, no matter what. This means more business, more rates for Council, and hence they saw it as a win win situation for the vested interest parties. We see John Key has pursued the same, creating growth through increasing the population.
It is dumb economics, as that does not increase productivity, it is like telling parents to have more babies, for more growth.
We know where that is leading us on a global scale, but they do not care, and they never ask the people that are already here.
Hence we now have this Unitary Plan, that ignores also that Watercare wrote in evidence presented on the Plan, that it can only ensure water supply for another 45,000 households. There has been no agreement for years, on whether Auckland can take more water from the Waikato River. So where is the water for 400,000 new households going to come from?
Watercare might have to start promoting a reduction in water demand for each household by more sustainable living. I wrote a comms plan for that in 2010 for the Regional Water Group but the supercity and managment at Watercare thought that was anathema to their ‘business’ interests and didn’t end up implementing it, even though it was well regarded. If someone would like to give me a job repreparing a plan I’d be happy to do it. It’s not rocket science. With the right management, resident education and communication demand could be met though moderating the immigration would help a lot.
Check out page 3 of this customer publication by Watercare, from winter 2015:
https://www.watercare.co.nz/SiteCollectionDocuments/AllPDFs/Tapped_In_Winter_2015.pdf
What they are planning is to reduce per household water consumption, which will be achieved over time by gradually increasing water and wastewater charges.
Once people will start smelling a bit more from under their armpits and so, you will know that they have “succeeded” in achieving greater “efficiencies”, by not losing revenue, as the price increases will lead to “wiser use”, for the same or even higher per unit costs.
People live from day to day, so will not think that far ahead. Hence they get away with all this.
But even with such savings, there will not be enough water for the future, unless we get more from the Waikato River, but their Council and residents have a say in this also.
…And Iwi in Tamaki Makaurau are getting suckered into getting into the Housing Game with their Settlement(s) or else no Settlement says the Crown Negotiator, Rick Barker. So they go to the back of the queue. Admittedly, some of the negotiators are getting “sweet-talked” into selling out the beneficiaries of these iwi Settlements into a Housing Crisis Crash …. some of the cuzzies aren’t bright enough to figure it out unfortunately.
It appears that Ray While are also rubbing their hands in great anticipation of selling ever more homes to investors in places such as China, once the new Unitary Plan will provide new homes, affordable not so much for locals, but those who have more cash in the upper middle class in other places:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/82465472/ray-white-signs-deal-with-lianjia-as-it-launches-into-china
And their absurd explanations:
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11682817
A good discussion over this on TS:
http://thestandard.org.nz/the-ray-white-china-deal/
It will be interesting to see if our tax haven status has given cover to those laundering money by purchasing high-end housing in NZ:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlfB3f4bqck
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-seeks-recover-more-1-billion-obtained-corruption-involving-malaysian-sovereign
And a postscript to my earlier post:
https://newsununity.com/2016/07/30/benjamin-fulford-news-flash-7302016/
This speculating baby boomer will sell to the highest bidder, probably a developer, and walk away from a 1/4 acre paradise that will be converted into high-rise…. With a bundle of notes in my pocket.
Cheers guys 😉
No surprises from Andrew. Greed is good, yeah right.
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