Face of the Day

Chris Penk

Residents of Auckland’s northwest will be very, very interested to learn that a large landholding has been approved for sale to Fletchers. It appears that approval was given by the government in late September, on the basis of Fletcher’s intention to “pursue a rezoning for urban use”.

According to the government, Fletchers “intends to subdivide and rezone the land in order to construct an urban village.” It is extraordinary to think that more residential housing can now be added to the area, beyond all the additional housing already available in Auckland’s “Unitary Plan”.

Allowing more housing without a proper plan for this area is throwing fuel on the fire. I’ve spoken so many times about the need to avoid this kind of ad hoc development under the radar. But here we go again.

The consent decision, published in the name of Labour MP Stuart Nash, also hinted at even further development to be encouraged by this new development: “Once complete, the investment is likely to result in additional investment, the construction of new dwellings (subject to the rezoning of the land and obtaining the necessary resource consents)”, according to official advice.

My point is that we already lack the infrastructure needed to service all our current and expected new residents: transport, water, school classrooms and so on. I’ve struggled to get authorities to take these problems seriously in the past 3 years, so I have absolutely no confidence that the necessary plans will be made to accommodate this intended new growth.

In summary, it seems unbelievable that an intention to place more housing would be endorsed without appropriate planning in place, at the very time that this area is already groaning under the weight of development.

Anyone interested to check out the full decision can find it on the government’s official website.