Media release

Auckland Councillor Cameron Brewer

Saturday, 18 May 2013

Three stories for ‘mixed housing’ changes everything – time for a unitary plan rethink

News that three-storey apartments are possible in the expansive "mixed housing" zone may be the final nail in the coffin of the Mayor’s ill-fated draft unitary plan, says Auckland Councillor for Orakei, Cameron Brewer.

“At all the public meetings I’ve sat in residents have been assured by council representatives that new developments in the suburban mixed housing zone will be two stories. However we now learn it could be three stories and neighbours will have no say. This revelation will really upset already angry Aucklanders.”

Mr Brewer says up to 70% of his eastern suburbs ward, including his own property, now sits in a mixed housing zone and says the prospect of three stories will see an even greater loss of character and even more pressure on the city’s already inadequate underground infrastructure, not to mention precious public open spaces and oversubscribed schools.

“My little 1929 character bungalow in Ellerslie could be easily demolished with a non-notified resource consent, then replaced with 10-metre high town houses or apartments as a non-notified restricted discretionary activity, with council’s planning staff deciding all of it without any say from the neighbours or the public.”

“The mixed housing zone covers 49% of urban Auckland but for wards like Orakei it’s much more and the consequences will be huge. This new zone will ensure a lot more infill housing when many suburbs are already at capacity.

“The revelation that much of the mixed housing zone could now be three-stories and that developers will also be able to exceed promised heights in the terraced housing and apartment zone only means much more urban crowding and there is no council budget to ensure all the much needed infrastructure can be provided.”

“This draft unitary plan process has so been a farce. People need to make sure they have their say by sending in a feedback form by 31 May. Work on the unitary plan should now be slowed right down with any major decisions to be made by the second term council after the October local body elections, not before. That would help restore at least some public confidence,” says Cameron Brewer.

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