My Account
It is now a waiting game after the third and final public meeting held to discuss the rezoning of large parts of Whangaparāoa Peninsula.
The meeting held in Whangaparāoa Hall on Saturday, July 2 attracted around 70 people, about half of whom had attended at least one of the earlier two meetings.
Crs Wayne Walker and John Watson painted a grim picture of the potential results of the rezoning for residents.
The re-zoning is to bring Auckland into line with the government’s Medium Density Residential Standards, which apply nationwide and allow three homes of three storeys to be built on most residential land without resource consent.
Cr Walker described houses packed together, just a metre from each other’s boundaries, with lack of sunlight, loss of green space and trees, little privacy and views only of the neighbours. Social infrastructure such as schools and medical facilities would suffer from the increased population, he said.
Whangaparāoa MP Mark Mitchell received a mixed response when he addressed the meeting, saying the legislation would be good for some areas, but not all – particularly those on the fringes, like Whangaparāoa.
He said the bill was about increasing housing supply and affordability, but that it is not suitable where there is insufficient infrastructure.
Some residents said the bill needs to be repealed and that Mark would be voted out if he did not stand behind the community on this issue.
Mitchell said he would take the community and councillors’ concerns back to parliament but that the first step is for the councillors and community to take their concerns to the panel of independent commissioners who will consider submissions.
Next month, the changes to the Unitary Plan will be notified and at that stage the public can make submissions for a second time. These will then be put to an independent hearings panel, which will make recommendations back to Auckland Council.
Mitchell says that through this process it may still be possible to get some areas, such as the peninsula, exempted from the re-zoning and that this lies with the commissioners.
At the same time as the plan is notified, Council will make public what it would like included as “qualifying matters” which may allow it to limit building heights or density where sufficient infrastructure is not in place.
However, Council cannot use these without providing strong evidence to prove why further housing density should be limited, and this needs to be justified against the government’s clear requirements to allow more housing density.
Council’s proposed plan change to the Auckland Unitary Plan must be publicly notified by August 20.
