Viewpoint – Poor planning for Dairy Flat

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great holiday. In this column, I want to highlight an area that several residents have recently contacted me about.

The strategic location of Dairy Flat between the urban areas of Albany and Silverdale is both a blessing and curse. Locals can enjoy a rural lifestyle but still be close to the shops, the motorway and decent public transport with the Northern busway. However, Dairy Flat also offers a cheap place for industrial type activities that can use the various loopholes of the Unitary Plan to operate in the rural zone.

Rural land is relatively cheap, and industries won’t be subject to the same business rates they would incur if they operated in an industrial zone. The latest industrial business to be consented by Auckland Council in the rural zone, is the new industrial-scale container yard on Dairy Flat Highway with its maximum-security barbed wired fences, lighting, and rows upon rows of containers. 

As a Local Board, we questioned this application, as it was not in keeping with the rural character of the area. However, it went through on a non-notified basis and therefore there was no avenue for community input.

As part of this container yard consent, the operators had to implement landscaping before storing the containers. Well established and planned landscaping buffers along the roadside can help maintain rural character. It is debatable if the landscaping now implemented will achieve this. I certainly don’t think so! But it is up to Auckland Council compliance staff to enforce consent conditions with the assumption being that operators will follow the rules. It is often up to members of the public to report non-compliance. If you have ever rung the Council call centre you will understand that this is not a quick process.

We have a couple of serious issues that are happening alongside this type of consent. As a result of staff shortages and cutbacks, Council implemented a policy last year when it came to following up on complaints from the public and only those matters that are considered a risk and harm to people and the natural environment will now be investigated. Lower priority complaints are closed without follow up!

During 2022, of the over 6000 incidents raised across Auckland, compliance staff closed over 4000 without any investigation. It is imperative that with the budget cuts required across Council to plug the ($295 M) deficit, the compliance department is not in the firing line – it is an essential core service, and it must have the funding required to do its job.

The other issue is that the rural zone, where most of these industrial type activities are taking place, is not planned to be rezoned until between 2038 to 2048. Without proper planning, in the next 20 years Dairy Flat could become a haphazard industrial area without the necessary infrastructure, reminiscent of a 1950s industrial zone.

This issue needs to be addressed this month when Council refreshes its development strategy for Auckland.