Source: Radio New Zealand
Housing Minister Chris Bishop at the announcement about the government’s revised plans yesterday. RNZ/Marika Khabazi
Auckland councillors are split on what to make of the government’s sudden change of heart on intensification.
Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced on Thursday the number of homes Auckland Council must plan for would be reduced from 2 million to 1.6m, but only if it submitted a plan that was approved by the central government.
The need for approval from Wellington outraged Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown.
“We’re not doing this in order to go to the government and to the Cabinet and ask for their approval,” he said after the announcement.
“I mean, the Cabinet mostly don’t even live in Auckland, so that’s not going to happen.”
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown. RNZ/Marika Khabazi
North Shore ward councillor and chairperson of the Policy, Planning and Development Committee, Richard Hills, agreed with Brown that the need to seek approval from the government was “very strange”.
“That was a bit of a surprise, we knew the number was being dropped but we were surprised this week that there would be some sort of intermediate phase where we would have to take the potential changes to Cabinet to sign off before they give us the legislation,” he told RNZ.
“The mayor’s been very clear that Auckland should not be going back to Cabinet, we are responsible to the people of Auckland, not Cabinet, so I’m not sure exactly how we’ll negotiate that out.
“It is a strange precedent, it’s normally left up to the different parts of the country to work out their own plans … I’m not exactly sure what the expectation is, I mean, what happens if the Cabinet don’t exactly agree with the direction of change? Will we have to go back and forward?”
North Shore ward councillor Richard Hills. Alexia Russell
The council also had little time to come up with the new plan, as Hills explained it had not been given an extension to its mid-2027 deadline.
“The end date for the plan being complete is still the same, so there’s going to be no extension on the other end, so whatever we do has to be quick, and it has to be quite focused on reducing some of the density in the outer areas of Auckland,” he said.
Another councillor, Albert-Eden-Puketāpapa’s Christine Fletcher, felt the government’s request was fair.
“I’m comfortable with the guardrails that the government are putting in place,” she said.
“We should have to justify where we’re looking to downzone, we should have to justify where we’re wanting the intensification, and so I’m quite comfortable with the process going forward.”
Albert-Eden-Puketāpapa councillor Christine Fletcher. RNZ / Finn Blackwell
Anne Moore, an east Auckland resident neighbouring a controversial three-storey development in Farm Cove, was pleased to hear the target for intensification had been lowered.
She said recent intensification in the suburbs had damaged National’s reputation, and wondered if Thursday’s U-turn was a reaction to that sentiment.
“I talk to people every day out here, residents are saying they’re worried ACT and Winston [Peters] are going to get their votes. It’s really been a big issue out here in east Auckland particularly, and they’ve been voicing how they feel,” she said.
“They don’t want [intensification], or they want it done in a measured way and they want it done so we’re aware of what’s going on in our suburbs. [Ministers] don’t live where these things are happening and yet they won’t listen to the people that live there.”
Moore hoped the lower target would push the council to take a more considered approach.
“That was always the hope, that if they reduced the number that would mean the focus would be on central city and transport hub development, rather than turning every suburb into a three-storied townhouse situation,” she said.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
