Fast-track process labelled 'farce'

10:07 am on 8 May 2014

Murielle Baker

A Northcote local body politician says fast-tracking more Auckland suburbs for housing development makes a farce of democracy.

On Wednesday, more Special Housing Areas earmarked for large scale development with fast-tracked consents and limited rights of appeal were announced. This latest list is the third announced under the Auckland Housing Accord.

Photo: SUPPLIED

The 41 areas reach from Helensville in the north-west to Pukekohe in the south, across which 18,000 homes are expected to be built. Consenting will be fast-tracked and there are limited rights of appeal so that construction time is cut down.

Kaipatiki Local Board covers Northcote, a suburb home to one of the new areas. Board member Grant Gillon said he was all for affordable housing but opposed fast-tracking process.

"It just makes a farce of the public submission process when large chunks of Auckland have been removed from the public consultation process, and the people have had their views discarded," he said.

Grant Gillon said several other board members and large parts of the community are also concerned about the process.

Auckland mayor Len Brown said other areas, like the corridor marked out along Great North Road in central city, have received positive feedback. He believed the communities in the lastest areas announced would end up supporting the move.

"These areas have been under-invested in for decades," he said. "We've really struggled to get appropriate levels of residential and commercial investment into them. The community, I think, will end up buying in because they can see some real energy coming into their communities around infrastructure build."

However the group Generation Zero, which focuses on solutions to climate change through changes to cities, says a lot of the areas are missed opportunities.

Generation Zero spokesperson Sudhvir Singh said there was a huge amount of urban sprawl outlined that would result in more carbon pollution and traffic congestion.

"Particularly in the far west out in Kumeu, Helensville, Whenuapai and Westgate, those (areas) are completely car-dependent," Dr Singh said.

"People living there will be reliant and dependant on a car, and they'll clog up our motorways and impose huge costs on the entire community in terms of higher rates and higher taxes, to pay for new infrastructure out there."

Resource and building consents for the 41 areas will be able to be considered as early as June.

A fourth list of areas will be announced in the coming months.

See a detailed map of the Special Housing Areas (pdf)