The Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan process is about to progress to the next stage which will provide interested parties with opportunities to attend hearings as to the submissions they made.
The process has encouraged active and meaningful participation; over 9000 submissions containing more than 100,000 individual requests for changes were sent.
One of the most interesting and unusual submissions was made by the Environment Minister. It was a damning indictment of Auckland Council’s failure to address the housing crisis.
It stated the Plan was too complex, expensive constraining, and that the rules and development controls do not allow for housing development to meet Auckland’s population growth and its housing shortage.
Acute shortage
Auckland faces a housing shortage which has led to sky rocketing house prices. One of the purposes of the Plan was to ensure that there is enough land zoned for housing and provide a set of rules to ensure that development can occur in the right place and in the right densities.
There is also concern that the Plan does not provide enough industrial land to provide for future growth.
The Council now has opportunity to listen to the submissions.
This starts with the pre-hearing process where measures will be undertaken to narrow the issues between parties prior to hearing. This is to include pre-hearing meetings, mediation and the sharing of expert advice, information and reports. This will ensure less time is required for official hearings, which are set to commence in 2015.
Hearing process
The hearing process will be conducted by the Government-appointed Auckland Unitary Plan Independent Hearings Panel. The panel will be given time until July 22, 2016 to present its recommendations, unless the Environment Minister agrees to an extension of the deadline.
The Council would then be given 20 days to accept or reject each recommendation, creating a solution for each rejected recommendation.
After the decisions are finalised, submitters can appeal to the Environment Court; however only where the Council has rejected a recommendation made by the Hearing Panel, or the Council has accepted a recommendation on a matter that is beyond the scope of the submissions made on the Plan.
Submitters may appeal to the High Court when it is a question of law.
Hamish Firth is Director of MHG, a Specialist Town Planning Company. Phone (09) 9505100; Email: info@mhg.co.nz; www.mhg.co.nz
