Auckland Housing Accord reviewed

Auckland Council’s Planning Committee yesterday received a review on the Auckland Housing Accord and requested a review of all Special Housing Areas to ascertain the number of affordable homes provided.

The Auckland Housing Accord was intended to increase housing supply, including the increased availability of land, as well as improve housing affordability, until the Auckland Unitary Plan became operative in September 2016.

Overall, the council met the target for 39,000 sites and dwellings consented within the three year period of the Accord. To date 5,527 dwellings issued with building consents and 3,105 dwellings have been completed within SHAs as of June 2017.

Councillor Chris Darby, Chair of the Planning Committee, says overall the Accord has been positive for Auckland significantly increasing the amount and speed of land supply and establishing a strong relationship with central government on housing issues.

“There should be no more questions about a shortage of land being supplied. With the Accord, helped by the Auckland Unitary Plan and Future Urban Land Supply Strategy that job is now done.

“But the Accord also had some oversights. It lacked affordability targets, had affordability criteria making it extremely hard to collect data and lacked requirements for developers to actually build houses once they had a Special Housing Area apply to their land.

“It is time now to build on the lessons of the Accord from the last three years and move forward to get on top of affordability issues in the same way we have with land supply.

“We don’t build houses; consenting is our business but Aucklanders can’t live in consents and so we have a responsibility to find ways to convert these into actual homes for people to live in.

Going forward this is going to be progressed through our on-going collaboration with central government and the private sector on new initiatives and strategies as outlined in the Mayoral Housing Taskforce report.

“We will also continue to very closely monitor a range of housing issues including affordability and homes built, rising rents and house prices to ensure council can do what it can to enable greater housing development across Auckland”, says Councillor Darby.

The following is a digest of decisions made.

Items 1-8 were administrative items with the exception of public and local board input summarised below.

Item 5: Public input

Ben Ross presented on the southern airport line and the Manukau rail south link.

Michael Goldwater, Julie Stout, David Gibbs and David Mitchell from Stop Stealing Our Harbour and Urban Auckland spoke regarding community views on port and waterfront issues.

Transpower provided a general update on their approach to developing network plans in response to growth and demand in Auckland.

Item 6: Local Board Input

Kaipātiki Local Board Chair, Danielle Grant presented to the Governing Body regarding the Plans and Places Work Programme.

Franklin Local Board Deputy Chair, Andrew Baker spoke on supporting structure planning for the south.

Item 9: Auckland Plan Refresh - feedback from local boards

Local board feedback to date was received by the Committee on the challenges, opportunities, strategic themes and focus areas of the proposed refreshed Auckland Plan.

The feedback focussed on key requirements for coping with Auckland’s population growth - housing affordability, integrated infrastructure, more local jobs, better use of open space and community facilities, coastal erosion, pest and weed management, water quality issues and importance of Māori and the strength of our diverse communities.

All of the local board feedback will be considered as the next iterations of the Auckland Plan refresh progress.

Item 10: Auckland Plan Refresh: Feedback on early engagement with communities of Auckland and proposed strategic framework

The Committee gave in principle approval of the proposed strategic framework for the refreshed Auckland Plan following early targeted engagement with Auckland communities.

Overall, feedback endorsed the approach and need for a more streamlined Auckland Plan refresh and the general strategic direction proposed.

Key community feedback included the lack of affordable housing and the impact that it has on belonging, employment, health and education. There was also feedback on equity of access to jobs; access to public transport; access to culture; and access to accommodation.

Item 11: Review and update on the Auckland Housing Accord

The Committee received a review on the Auckland Housing Accord.

The October Planning Committee will also receive a report on the number of relative affordable and retained affordable dwellings consented under the Housing Accord and Special Housing Areas and with Code of Compliance Certificates issued and whether all the statutory declarations for the relative affordable dwellings have been provided to Auckland Council.

Quarterly reports on Auckland housing will be provided to the Planning Committee on a range of topics

Item 12: Place-based Spatial Planning Update and Future Programme

The Committee agreed to complete the Mass Rapid Transit Spatial Planning Programme as a high priority alongside approving the spatial planning programme for existing urban areas and Great Barrier and Waiheke Islands.

The spatial planning programme for existing urban includes:

Year 1 Years 2 and 3
Albert-Eden Local Transformation Programme Waiheke and Great Barrier Planning Review
Parnell Local Plan Takapuna West (Barrys Point) Local Plan
Sunnynook Centre Plan Glenfield Centre Plan
Mairangi Bay Centre Plan

Also approved are four ‘structure plans’ to be completed for future urban areas in Drury-Opaheke and Paerata-Pukekohe within 12 months and Warkworth and Silverdale West-Dairy Flat within the next 18 months.

Structure planning is the first step in considering how and when Future Urban zoned land should be made available for urban development. A key part of the preparation of a structure plan is working with the community and landowners on shaping these future neighbourhoods and business areas to ensure that they integrate well with the environment and the entire bulk infrastructure is provided in an efficient and affordable manner.

Item 13: Feedback on National Planning Standards discussion papers

The Committee endorsed the feedback submitted by the council to the Ministry for the Environment on the first set of National Planning Standards discussion papers.

The Resource Legislation Amendment Act 2017 introduced a new type of national direction in the form of national planning standards which seek to improve the consistency of resource management plans and policy statements.

The feedback provided to the Ministry for the Environment is included in thePlanning Committee Addendum agenda on the council website

Item 14: Proposed Auckland Council submission on the National Environmental Standard for Marine Aquaculture

The Committee approved Auckland Council’s submission on the draft National Environmental Standard for Marine Aquaculture

The Ministries for Primary Industries and the Environment are consulting on a proposed National Environmental Standard for Marine Aquaculture to develop a more consistent and efficient regional planning framework .

A copy of the council’s draft submission is attached to the Planning Committee agenda on the council website.

ENDS

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