SSSAB FTW!

It's got a fair way to go before it looks anything like…

Huh, yeah, Beijing's climate is hard to love, and I've heard people say they love Beijing despite the climate. But on the plus side, being in the north we get central heating. I remember the winter I spent in Changsha – I was fine because…

It seems likely to me that's what he's dealing with. Also, he hates the climate, and that always…

My sense is that the large level of interest, and the misleading approach taken by some, just was not anticipated by the team working on the draft, who are mostly planners and thus indulge in…

This whole segregation of building use seems to be a hangover from Chairman Mao's day. Which is where mixed-use buildings, or "vertical…

Sounds strange. I can imagine some of the farther flung housing developments being a bit like that, but mostly because they're too new to have developed…

Len Brown did a great concise job of that on Q&A this morning – 10 min clip.

Evidence of what? I lived there for years. I had a car, but I just didn’t use it for doing things in the city, that would be pointless and tedious. I either walked or caught trams, within the core area…

Just had an interesting chat with a mate living in Beijing. He's an absolute Sinophile, but Beijing is his least favourite city. I don't know where exactly he is, but his description of the amenities of life where…

Have also spoken to Senior Managers, Elected Members, representatives from every division of Council all the way to the Mayor's office...and not one person could – or was willing – to explain how the Unitary Plan actually flowed from the Auckland Plan.

Can you explain…

Not really. Science and technology have advanced, ideologies spouted by the ruling classes have changed, but people remain people. You can learn as much about modern society from ancient Greek, Chinese and other classics as any modern writing.

If so few people visit…

Riiiighhhhhttt....so, they are employed in a silo to write "a Plan". Without any idea how it fits in with anything else....hmmmm....

How do you propose this happens, exactly...attend a Green Party fundraiser?

Excuse my cynicism, but as someone actively involved in a wide variety of community…

The Core Rail Link is infrastructure. And it's for the entire region's transport network, not just the "inner city".

Like the Unitary Plan, communication has been woeful until recently, so…

that's not their job

I'm sorry, but your point seems rather confused to me. The story I linked to would seem to show the opposite of individualism – people engaging with their community and working to help those less fortunate…

Exactly. And what really leaped out at me from that story:

"It is great that the Government is stepping in but **we need to help our own communities too. That's the way life used to be and somehow we've lost track…

And if I've given you the impression that I think any such thing I'm deeply and sincerely mortified. At the risk of being presumptuous, I'm…

The standard of “building and design” needs to markedly improve.

Presently in the area I live, the Mt Albert Eden Ward, a significant proportion of recent developments…

So we'll hold the whole…

The Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill :

Petition presented 30 May 2013 / Questions asked by Green Party Housing Spokesperson Holly Walker and answers from Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA, Chair of the Social Services Select Committee:

http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/Presented/Petitions/5/0/5/50DBHOH_PET3157_1-Petition-of-Penelope-Mary-Bright-requesting-that.htm

Petition of Penelope Mary Bright

Requesting that Parliament declines…

This Plan is NOT entirely terrible.
It may be premature, it maybe too politically timed, it may be giving us incomplete information, and indeed not enough information to make truly informed decisions, but some of the concepts contained within it are…

The…

Good observation.

From the draft Auckland Unitary Plan:
The dUAP specifically states that the Auckland Plan sits at the top of the strategic framework and describes the 30-year vision of Auckland as the world’s most…

Phew; what a relief...

All these years, I thought my neighbours in Ponsonby couldn't give…

Pleased to hear it.

So I'll ask the question again – what Strategy or Plan does the Unitary Plan correspond to?

The reality is, for all the documentation that has come out of Council proclaiming they have a unified vision and strategy for Auckland, there…

Auckland Council employ some of the largest PR teams in the country.

If you've ever had any dealings with them, you would understand why it…

By override, do you mean the upcoming local government elections?

The…

It's a huge waste of money, and I notice that it's *our* money not Infratil's.

Christchurch has a full-size runway, it's a bigger city and further from Auckland. With Air Asia pulling out, the only long-ish haul flight is…

Speak for yourself. Last I checked humans were still very much social animals and naturally put the needs of the group ahead of those of the individual. Individualism, to put it politely, is the aberration.

I'm saying no, it doesn't.

Its architects had hoped for it to be a rubber stamp for their wider agenda. As far as they're concerned, Len Brown stole the keys from John Banks and hijacked it, and now they're fumbling for the…

Absolutely agree...

Ummm...well, yes and no.

The Super City structure is most certainly to blame for the siloed approach.

However, it also reveals the blinkered manner in which the Unitary Plan has been developed and…

We need to remember – car ownership is not the issue; people's reliance on cars to get them everywhere they want to go is the issue.

I own a car to take me to places for recreation and sport not…

Usual distinction between opinions and facts applies.

A fine sentiment, likely to misfire methinks.

With all due disrespect, SteveL when you've got an opposition lobby group circulating "impressions" of the effects of the Unitary Plan that... well, aren't entirely accurate (and getting them published in Auckland's only daily newspaper)? "Mis-informed"…

I’m not knocking the people campaigning for and against the plan. I’m encouraging you. I’m envious, really. You get to have all the heated, spurious, fact-based, hate-filled arguments that shape cities.…

It's going to be akin to a Board of Inquiry, Environment Court Hearing including cross examination.

That's likely to put off most punters except those will…

Thanks Russel, you just proved my point about opponents being labelled as mis-informed.

Totally agree. And I for one am available at very reasonable rates if they don't have the necessary skills to do that.

But doesn't the email addressed in the original post answer that question?

I'm also curious why people who oppose the DUP are labelled as being mis-informed by those who support the DUP. It's quite condescending.

And who knows if things change during the process...

Yes, and then everyone will have the opportunity to comment and make formal submissions on a proposed Unitary Plan shaped by this initial feedback phase. But you knew that.

Councils aren't sports teams – the idea is that they provide good services and appropriate regulation – not to demonstrate what…

Pays to look at this in light of the proposed RMA changes. That's where some of the tension lies.

But if you read the actual feedback report it seems clear that the decision on the siting of the terraced/apartment area (on run-down Housing NZ property to…

I agree, but dont just blame the punters for this.

I went to one of the meeting where Len and his officers came to try and explain some of the details around the Unitary Plan.

They talked constantly about 2 story…

The current furor is over the opportunity provided to have input into a process about planning to create a plan for the future growth of Auckland City.

I attribute the “heart” of the irrational opposition to the…

I still can't buy Hooton as a Death Eater. Slytherin, sure.

FFS, Matthew. Call me an unpatrioric rugby-hating Grinch if you must, but there were perfectly legitimate questions about how "free" it really was and Mallard did a terrible job of addressing those concerns rather than…

The National Party don't have an alternative vision…

The text on the feedback page says this:

Next steps

Once feedback has closed, the council will work through the feedback and determine what changes need to…

There's also a list of ways to give feedback, from Twitter on up.

There seems to be an illusion held by some that by eliminating managed intensification, intensification itself will disappear. This certainly wasn’t the case for certain areas of Oxford in the 1980’s. Property values rose, but it became almost impossible to re-develop on existing sites. With a fluid student accommodation…

Citzenship needs to be nurtured to create a mature society. We reap what we don't sow.

This is not a job done.

Sure I get the feeling the planners would have like to spend another 6 months before letting anyone see it (because they knew it had problems) I also get the feeling someone said it goes out on…

Len Brown wanted it to take legal effect immediately following Notification. Amy Adams rejected that and imposed the one off independent hearing process from September.

Yes, the 'supercity' amalgamation swapped silos of geography for those of function.

It will take some time and effort to get them all working coherently. Not helpful when CCOs like Auckland Transport and Watercare were specifically set up by the government to be beyond Council's…

Um to understand all the information behind the plan you'd need a degree in town planning. Seriously folks have you ever tried to assemble a document even a tenth as complex as this thing is? It's freaking amazing that it…

Please do provide some evidence, because your assertion flies in the face of what I've heard on the topic. Transportblog have done many detailed posts over the years about the impact of parking on our cityscape, and…

What I don't get is that it seems to me that this is precisely what the DRAFT unitary plan is doing right now.

A draft plan has been put together, mostly by joining up…

Not only are most Aucklanders…

'Unobtrusive' my arse. Hypocrites.

Hang on, I know there are a lot of tax dodgers in Auckland, but are you saying that nobody in the AK pays tax at all?

Because they way I saw it, the 1.5 million Aucklanders were…

Yes, but your lot are sucking information from the debate. When that happens,…

Possibly true for some/many, but as Russell has pointed out, this is the start of the consultation process for the new city, it has to start somewhere. As unfair and, I think, untrue to dismiss all the protestors as to…

Oh I certainly agree about that.

Not so – they have been asking for it to take effect right away for current applications while changes continue alongside which will take several…

Good point.

The challenge for leaders anywhere is to raise people's sights to take in the horizon and all the other people we share this with.

We are feeling your pain.

OTOH, I too…

I’m not sure either. But there are already plenty of multi-occupancy buildings in suburbs like Mt Eden and Grey Lynn. And I did note the 1200m threshold…

Actually just thinking about it, that's not entirely accurate either, one of the major changes of the MH zone is the variety of housing styles it caters for, detached, semi-detached, townhouses, terraced houses and low…

What the government doesn't pay is the rates – Otago Uni doesn't pay rates in Dunedin (it does voluntarily pay some water related fees), every time they buy out a new local building it goes…

Quite. Easy to see which of Gen Zero or Grey Power are thinking of a future for others, not just themselves.

Not at Thatcher vs Livingstone levels yet, but it's getting close.

Fear is an understandable response to change, and it deserves far better handling than we're getting. Whoever 'managed' the comms for this whole draft UP process needs a spanking. Channeling my inner parent today. :)

The Ministry of Education already does quite sophisticated…

It gives them an air of reasonableness that your story deflates.

:D

Absolutely agree that schools and other…

True dat. But can I recommend you listen to Todd Niall's Insight report? He's a very level-headed journalist and he found that constructive engagement is currently running almost entirely in…

It might also be constructive to note relations between local and central government, function or no, aren't a one-way street.

This is such an important dimension. It’s where deliberate misinformation is filling the vacuum.

And it's about time someone had the guts to state the obvious: There's a metric fuckton of barely sub-textual Yellow Peril racism. If…

So it's little surprise that less engaged people are susceptible to any misinformation.…

Thank you for pointing that out; I’ve amended the post. As things stand, resource consents would be required, but not notified. The council has indicated that that it will consider a move to automatic notification,…

Of course, just because my name isn't on a property title/rates bill, doesn't mean I don't pay rates. My landlord does out of the rent…

That's a very odd argument. The Unitary Plan is bad because old people pay rates? And young people should take more of the…

Correct: I’ll add the word “notified”. But my understanding remains that this isn't something…

I don't think that is correct. I think you still need a resource consent, it's just that it's at the discretion of the council officers. It's…