Auckland Council Response to Recent Government Housing Intensification Legislation
Spokesperson McRae
Summary of Feedback
Council Feedback Document
Auckland Council recently asked for feedback on its proposals as to how it intended to comply with the new housing intensification legislation. The Council published the results of this feedback on Thursday 26th May. This is available at https://akhaveyoursay.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/housing
The document is quite long, 51 pages, but is very comprehensive. It covers all responses to the questions raised by Council and breaks the responses down into each question, with percentages for each of the responses offered by Council and broken down into responses from individuals or organisations. It also breaks down the totals into each of the Local Board areas and includes demographics – age, gender and ethnicity, (but not per Board).
Council received a total of 7860 responses. Of these 640 (8%) came from the Takapuna / Devonport Local Board area.
Over half 55% were between the ages of 45 and 74 years. 68% were of European ethnicity.
Scope of this Summary
This summary only looks at the responses to the issue of Special Character Areas (SCAs), outlined in questions 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 in the feedback document. It also highlights the responses from the Takapuna / Devonport Local Board area.
Summary of responses to questions relating to Special Character Areas
Question 3.1 “What do you think of our proposal to include identified special character areas as a qualifying matter?”
Individuals: 42% were in favour. However, a further 30% felt that the existing SCAs should be retained. This makes a total of 72% in favour of SCAs as a qualifying matter.
In Devonport, the total figure was 78% of respondents in favour.
19% were not in favour of SCAs as a qualifying matter. 13% of Devonport respondents were not in favour.
Organisations: 31% were in favour, with a further 18% supporting the existing SCAs, making a total of 49% of organisations in favour.
16% of organisations were not in favour.
Question 3.2 “What do you think of the proposed residential special character areas that we have identified?”
Individuals: 23% were in favour. However, a further 42% felt that there were more areas that should be included. This makes a total of 65% in favour of the proposed SCAs or more.
In Devonport, the total figure was 74% of respondents in favour.
14% did not support the proposed SCAs. 6% of Devonport respondents were not in favour.
Organisations: 14% were in favour, with a further 23% supporting the existing SCAs, making a total of 37% of organisations in favour.
8% of organisations were not in favour.
Question 3.3 “What do you think of the proposed business special character areas that we have identified?”
Individuals: 28% were in favour. However, a further 23% felt that there were more areas that should be included. This makes a total of 51% in favour of business SCAs.
In Devonport, the total figure was 50% of respondents in favour.
13% did not support the proposed business SCAs. 5% of Devonport respondents were not in favour.
Organisations: 20% were in favour, with a further 17% supporting more areas in the business SCAs, making a total of 37% of organisations in favour.
7% of organisations were not in favour of the proposed business SCAs, with none from Devonport.
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General Note
A council comment on the feedback results was made regarding “pro-forma responses” that were identified. The report states that
“As with all feedback, pro-forma feedback must be given due consideration with an open mind, and it is up to elected members to determine the weight they give to this feedback.
We note feedback was received as pro-formas from three campaigns, though none big enough to significantly influence results. These came in response to campaigns from St Mary’s Bay residents, (176), the Coalition for More Homes, (87), and Devonport residents, (26).”
Sometimes “pro-forma” responses in Council submissions are down-played and “lumped” together, so it is good to see that Council does not appear to be going down that path.