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A decision made by Auckland Council has cleared the way for publicly owned parks and reserves and community buildings to be sold and the land developed for housing.
The council’s Finance & Performance Committee voted on March 19 to amend its revenue and financing policy to allow for sales of council owned ‘service’ property. Albany Ward councillors Wayne Walker and John Watson voted in opposition, but were outnumbered.
Council defines ‘service property’ as buildings and land “that perform or have performed a service” and this includes parks and reserves.
Cr Wayne Walker says that the decision makes it explicit for the first time that assets which Council considers are ‘underutilised’, including parks and reserves, can be sold for housing.
“The end result will be less open space for the community at the same time as the population is increasing markedly,” Cr Walker says.
Any sales would be in addition to the $650 million worth of assets that Council already proposes to sell over the next 10 years, via its draft Long Term Plan.
The report from Auckland Council Property Ltd (ACPL) that was presented to the Finance & Performance Committee meeting states that the overall objective of selling ‘service property’ is to “…facilitate, enhance and speed up housing and town centre development…” and “in the majority of cases this will result in intensification of land use, particularly residential…”
Cr Watson says that this signals ACPL’s intention to increasingly act as “a pseudo-developer”, selling council land to be used for intensive housing – a process that began last year when ACPL obtained powers and funding to enable it to become more active in providing land for the private sector in support of council’s housing policies.
Both councillors say that the CCO’s proposal to sell and develop the land at 20 Link Crescent in Whangaparaoa, which went ahead despite community opposition, is an example of this “short sighted” approach.
That piece of land was not a reserve, but earmarked for sale by the former Rodney District Council, which zoned it Residential High Intensity. However, the councillors say that it should have been set aside as a reserve and part of it as a possible park and ride for Whangaparaoa town centre.
“In this council there is an obsession with cramming more and more housing onto every spare scrap of land,” Cr Watson says. “It wouldn’t be so bad if the council was supplying the supporting transport and community infrastructure but that’s not happening.”
The report says that the proceeds of any sales will be returned to local boards in order to complete prior-approved projects that have insufficient funds, and Cr Walker says while this makes sense on the face of it, there are concerns. “Increasingly local boards will be pressured to sell off assets in order to fund projects previously paid for by rates,” he says. “While big projects elsewhere in Auckland are advanced through rates, local boards will have to sell off assets in their areas to get anything done. In this ward we’ve already seen the sale of council land that will be needed in the future for reserve space and transport initiatives.”
An Auckland Council spokesperson says that underperforming service properties will be identified by local boards and the community as well as in asset management and policy network plans.
“Service property optimisation is a voluntary activity and will not commence without prior local board support,” the spokesperson says.
Hibiscus & Bays Local Board chair Julia Parfitt says revoking reserve status, which must happen before a reserve can be sold, is a lengthy, complicated and public process.
She also says that the local board has no appetite for selling reserves.
“We value our reserves, many of which are by the sea. We would like to be creating more, not selling them,” she says.
