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Waka Kotahi and Auckland Transport’s Supporting Growth programme was accused of ‘putting the cart before the horse’ by issuing Notices of Requirement (NoR) affecting hundreds of properties in Dairy Flat (HM November 13).
Speaking during the public forum of Rodney Local Board’s November 29 meeting, local resident Peter Sinton said not only had Auckland Council pushed out development of the area from 2032 to 2050, but there was no need for NoRs at this stage anyway.
“Development is a long way away,” he said. “There are reports here saying the NoRs should proceed – they shouldn’t.”
Sinton said a final structure plan should have been in place before the NoRs were issued, but in fact it is still being worked on.
“It’s fundamentally wrong, it’s the cart before the horse,” he said. “NoRs have to follow that planning process, not come before. They’re already affecting people.”
Sinton voiced his concerns just before the board considered council’s Spatial Land Use Strategy for Dairy Flat and Silverdale Future Urban Zones, which includes siting two new town centres, a rapid transport corridor and new industrial and residential areas.
Members voiced concerns over siting the town centres in flood-prone areas and the potential impact on existing roads, as well as the timing of the land use strategy and NoRs.
Council’s principal planner, Dave Paul, admitted that the whole point of the land use strategy was to tie in with Supporting Growth’s transport programme.
“We tried to look at the potential location for the town centres that could support and integrate with the rapid transport corridor,” he said. “We’ve been working in conjunction with Supporting Growth for three or four years now.”
Dairy Flat member Louise Johnston asked him if there was a risk in planning new town centres so far ahead, with the climate changing.
“The difficulty is because the Supporting Growth team decided to go ahead with notifying and doing the protected transport programme,” Paul said. “We had to work along with them to identify suitable land uses and were stuck with doing something now. But just because something gets adopted now, it doesn’t mean it can’t be reviewed in future.”
Johnson also voiced concerns over the fact that the strategy appeared to be planning significant housing development in or near flood plains.
“Healthy Waters said there would need to be more work done around that at the structure plan stage,” Paul said. “And any building would be around a flood plain, not in it.”
Members voted to express concerns on eight separate issues, including that the town centres, rapid transport network and high density housing would be in an identified flood hazard – they asked Healthy Waters to review this before the Spatial Land Use Strategy was adopted.
The strategy had been due to go before council’s Planning, Environment and Parks committee the following day, on November 30. However, after the local board meeting, Johnston contacted the committee chair with their concerns and the item was postponed for consideration of the board’s views.
