Are Intensification Plans Unravelling?
Spokesperson McRae
Developments over the last two weeks show the Government’s intensification proposals for Auckland are coming under real pressure.
In late May the National opposition pulled its support for the intensification accord with Labour.
Their new policy allows councils to opt out of the Medium Density Residential Housing (MDRS) – the three-storey, three home plan for intensive housing throughout major cities.
Around the same time, two leading members of the Independent Hearings Panel including the chairman, resigned.
Since the beginning of the year the Panel has been working through the thousands of submissions on Plan Change 78 which enacts the MDRS.
The Panel had already put the plan change on hold after Auckland Council requested a year to investigate the disastrous flooding that hit Auckland this summer.
Up until this point our Devonport Heritage planning team had been working hard with submissions and expert conferencing towards settling some issues regarding our Special Character Areas.
Now the whole process is paused and we have no idea when or even if it will resume.
Devonport Heritage believes the flooding means a complete overhaul of housing strategy is required for Auckland and therefore the city should be exempt from the MDRS.
Now is the time for very serious and robust investigations into where housing can safely be built and with the necessary infrastructure. It is not the time to throw houses up everywhere in the city with no planning at all.
If the city wants to provide more intensive housing it needs more planning not less.
Plan Change 82 - Amendments to Historic Heritage Schedule
The Independent Hearings Panel is continuing to hear other plan changes that have not been paused.
Plan Change 82 proposes downgrading several historic buildings in Devonport from the A to B schedule of historic places to align with its Auckland-wide assessments.
Devonport Heritage objected to several of these changes and with expert advice from heritage architect Jackie Gillies, made a strong case for the continuation of the A scheduling for some of our landmark buildings at the hearing last month. These included:
Mays Building, Victoria Road
Devonia Building, Victoria Road,
Duder House, Church Street,
9 Mays Street house
St Paul’s Church
Anzac Memorial Drive, Lake Road
Our team put forward strong evidence that these places are significant ‘beyond the locality’ which is the benchmark for achieving the A schedule.
Plan Change 81 – Additions to Schedule
Auckland Council is trying to prevent Devonport Heritage from presenting its Historic Heritage Area (HHA) proposal for Victoria Road as a submission to a Plan Change 81.
The council say staff do not have enough time or resources to assess our proposal despite encouraging us to do the massive amount of work involved.
Based on their support we commissioned heritage and planning specialists to work on the proposal throughout last year and liaised closely with council heritage staff.
They fully back our HHA proposal, have praised our work and say Victoria Road utterly deserves to be an HHA. But they say they still need to spend many hours checking and doing site visits.
The Independent Hearings Panel will decide whether we can present our proposal by the end of the month.
The HHA for the Victoria Road commercial area will raise its status to those like Karangahape Road, Mt Eden Village, Onehunga centre and others which are all Historic Heritage Areas.
The full HHA proposal can be read on the Devonport Heritage website – devonportheritage.net – scroll down to ‘recent submissions’.
New Owners for Old Buildings
We are as excited and curious as everyone else in Devonport about the new owners of the buildings in the lower part of Victoria Road.
The NZ Herald and The Flagstaff announced three weeks ago that Peninsular Capital will buy about twelve buildings in the main street.
We were delighted when one of the new owners contacted us with a view to meeting and discussing the significant heritage value of Victoria Road.
It is certainly a positive start, and we look forward to constructive discussions about how best to protect and enhance the heritage value of this superb collection of historic buildings.