Growth – A more strategic approach

The Warkworth Area Liaison Group, which has changed its name to the Mahurangi Community Planning Group (MCPG), will present to the Rodney Local Board early next month. We will be seeking funding for a professional team to undertake the Town Centre project. This could come from Auckland Council’s “fairer funding”, which was granted to local boards to support development initiatives.

The MCPG technical group has already commissioned an urban designer to assist in the preparation of an overall design for the key central block involving the bowling club site. It is essential that this project should be supported at the local level and that the funding for it should come from the board. This Development Plan project has considerable significance for the town centre’s future. It would be a “pilot” community-led project, demonstrating what the community considers most appropriate for its town centre and surrounds.

In an attempt to develop a more strategic approach to rural growth patterns, council has just launched a Rural Settlement Design Guide process. This is intended to ensure all new development in rural settlements is better designed reflecting the rural character, context and landform.

It has started this process, following some initial community consultation, with a workshop with the Franklin Local Board. This is intended to produce some appropriate guidelines for new subdivision and development, even though these will have a non-statutory status.

Council then intends to do the same with the Rodney Local Board. Given all the work that MCPG has done to date, it has to be involved in this process. Currently, it is unable to participate in local board workshops. MCPG wants to present the preferred urban form developed by its professionals as the community-led option to the council’s urban design team.

Councils are now being directed to limit their forward planning by the government, and no further Plan Changes can be prepared by them. It is thus very unclear how a strategic and coordinated approach to “urban” growth will be developed. The direction proposed in the Going for Housing Growth policy underlines this further. The emphasis on growth being driven by the (supposed) housing demand does not take a comprehensive strategic approach to all aspects of urban development.

There needs to be consideration of the required level of infrastructure (services) and district roading connections, as well as employment opportunities, community and recreational facilities, and health and educational services to meet the extra demand created by new housing developments.

There are severe financial and funding constraints to all aspects of development. Housing can be created by the developers, but other services and infrastructure have to be provided by other agencies. In order to address this issue, developers will have to pay for those services by way of considerable development contributions, which will inevitably increase the cost of that housing. There is no easy solution to resolving this issue.