The Howick Local Board is today meeting, with dozens of members of the community present, to formulate its feedback to proposed housing intensification in east Auckland.
The meeting is being held at the board’s meeting room in the Pakuranga Library building and gets under way at 1pm.
There’s so many members of the public in attendance that an overflow room has been set up and about 50 people are in it, in addition to the several dozen in the public seating area of the board’s meeting room.
The meeting’s purpose is for the board to decide on its feedback to Auckland Council on the partial withdrawal of Proposed Plan Change 78 (PC78).
The changes may impact areas such as Howick Village, Sandspit Road in Cockle Bay, Pakūranga, Bucklands Beach and Meadowlands.
It could allow for them to become zoned Mixed Housing Urban or Terraced Housing and Apartments zoning, allowing for six-, 10-, or 15-storey buildings to be constructed.
“At this stage this is a draft change to Auckland’s planning rules, with feedback being sought from the council’s local boards and mana whenua,” board chairperson Damian Light said previously.
“The Howick Local Board will provide its feedback to the council as part of this process.
“This will then be considered by the council’s policy and planning committee in late September, when it decides whether to publicly notify the plan change.”
The Times will be reporting live from the meeting today as it goes.
Each speaker addressing the board will have three minutes to do so. They can also be asked questions by the local board.
Light is explaining that people will have several chances to share their views on the proposed changes and that the local board is not the decision-maker on any changes.
The first speaker is Andries Popping of the Howick Ratepayers and Residents Association (HRRA).
He says infrastructure is groaning or does not exist and there is no mandate from Auckland for the proposed changes.
“I’m still quite surprised by those in Wellington who are pursuing this, but you can do something about it. It represents a disaster for Howick.”
With six-storey apartments the impact on Howick will be “huge”, he says.
“Despite our efforts to save the views of Stockade Hill the views will disappear.”
The next speaker is Janet Dickson of HRRA.
She asks how soils will withstand the sheer weight of heavy buildings that could be constructed locally if the proposed plan change goes ahead.
“This is total nonsense. It needs to stop dead in its tracks. This plan is not a solution.”
Dickson is now pointing to parts of a large map on the local board’s meeting room wall and explaining those areas are all that’s left of the single-house zone.
The next speaker is Laurie Slee of the Cockle Bay Residents and Ratepayers Association (CBRRA).
He says the board needs to go back to the council and say there is a bigger picture, which is the cost of carrying out the required infrastructure.
He says his group agrees there has to be some intensification.
He’s explaining what the board can tell the council to ask it to carry out any proposed plan changes properly.
Next up are local residents Sarah Kavanagh and Jack Collins.
Kavanagh says there is massive concern about what impact the changes may have on local property values.
She says schools and medical centres will be “utterly overwhelmed” if multi-storey housing developments are allowed to go ahead.
Selwyn Pratt, a resident of Reydon Place in Cockle Bay, is now speaking. He says it’s time to stop the intensification process.
“This seems to be a bit of pushback between [Auckland] Council and Government. They’re playing politics.
“How are you going to put two million more houses into this city?
“Man up and have these guys on. [Housing Minister Chris] Bishop is out of control.”
Shelly Park School principal Ed Roper is next up.
He says traffic and parking in the area is “ridiculous” and his biggest concern is the safety of his school’s pupils.
“We’ve got a great character at my school and when more families move in-zone that’s going to disappear.”
He says it’s hard to find more teachers and it will be expensive to build more classrooms at local schools.
Peter Bankers from Howick Pakuranga and Districts Grey Power is now speaking.
He says the group is ‘”very much opposed” to Proposed Plan Change 78 and its replacement.
Many of the group’s members are nervous drivers and they’re concerned about how busy local roads will become due to increasing housing intensification.
Pakuranga Park Village manager and Cockle Bay resident Christian Pulley is up next.
He says he’s lived in the area for 25 years and his children attend local schools.
“We live in a sensitive area. Cockle Bay Beach has just a third of its biomass left.
“We already have sewage coming out of a poorly put-together development.
“I am concerned enough to say to people out taking shellfish, ‘you have to put that back’.
“We have sewage on our beach to the point that I can smell it in the water when I run past.
“Our village cannot take all of this infill housing.”
He says the council should be going to Cockle Bay School and Howick College and asking the schools’ families what they want for their community.
Pulley has concluded his remarks to the board. He received applause from members of the public present as he left the meeting room.
The public forum part of the meeting today has ended and the board is asking questions of a council advisor who’s taking part in the meeting online.
The board has begun discussing what it wants to say in its feedback to the council on Proposed Plan Change 78.
The Times will have a follow-up story detailing the board’s feedback once it’s been decided.
