Archive | Auckland City

Published 24 September 2010

Auckland City councillors approved a bevy of plan changes at their final scheduled full council meeting last night.

One that missed was private plan change 8, proposed by Westfield (NZ) Ltd for the expansion of its St Lukes shopping mall into a town centre. It was deferred for further consideration and another council meeting before the existing council’s time runs out on 31 October and the new Auckland Council takes over the reins on 1 November.

A major change, approved without comment apart from a request for the report to go to the Tamaki Community Board, was private plan change 235, enabling Kiwi Income Property Trust to increase development of Sylvia Park by 100,000m² and to allow buildings up to 60m tall on parts of the 25ha site.

I’ve written about those 2 plan changes in separate stories. The rest of the night’s plan changes, mostly to be made operative, are listed below.

Wynyard Quarter:

Plan change 4 to be made operative in part (those parts no longer subject to challenge)Plan changes 43 & 33Plan change 17 – a notice of requirement for public open space & road relating to the proposed Linear Park – is reduced in extent to apply only south of Pakenham St as the related plan change 38 is now beyond challengePlan changes 20 & 24 – notices of requirement for public open space & road, relating to the Jellicoe St area – are withdrawn because replacement plan changes 39 & 40 are beyond challenge.

City development committee chairman Aaron Bhatnagar moved a late amendment to plan change 4, adding regionally significant transport infrastructure to uses of the quarter where conflicts are to be managed to ensure efficient operation, and also inserted a new method in that plan change requiring accommodation “to be designed to achieve minimum acoustic attenuation standards to provide an acceptable level of internal amenity for occupants”. These changes were also approved.

Kohimarama retirement village, plan change 219, rezoning land at 223 Kohimarama Rd & 7 John Rymer Place

Earlier story: 10 September 2010: Kohimarama retirement village plan change approved

Epsom, 16 Almorah Place, plan change 269, adding a pohutukawa tree to the notable trees schedule

Rugby World Cup 2011, amendments of the signs & billboard bylaws to come into force Monday 4 October

Learning Quarter, area 1, plan change 36, deleting the tertiary education precinct provisions and replacing them with a new set of provisions referred to as Learning Quarter, area 1

Ellerslie, Central Park, private plan change 227, sought by Goodman Property Trust to increase the total maximum gross floor area of the buildings on the 6.2ha site to 114,000m² and to allow 3 buildings up to 16 storeys (67.9m), among other changes

Earlier story, 23 March 2009: Goodman seeks plan change to expand Central Park capacity

Heritage schedules:

Private plan change 54, CBD,35 High St, scheduling all public spaces, including ground-floor retail, lobbies, stairwells & corridors, excluding tenancy space above the ground floor, schedule A2; and a tram pole at Emily PlacPrivate plan change 55, 104 Fanshawe St, ex-Auckland Timber Co building, a change from category B to category A; Parnell Rise railway bridge piers & viaduct; & the ex-Wesleyan chapel at 8A Pitt StPrivate plan change 199, the Robbie Burns statue in the Domain; engineer’s house at Motat; ex-Wood grocer’s building at 151-155 Mt Eden RdPlan change 218, Parnell, Mayfair Flats at 75 Parnell Rd; St Heliers, Blumenthal/Mondrian House at 317 St Heliers Bay Rd; Mission Bay, Garden Court flats at 5 Tamaki DrivePrivate plan change 292, Parnell rail bridge & piers; Newton, Maori Hall, 5 Edinburgh St; Mt Albert, 7 Sainsbury Rd; Glendowie, 52 Roberta Avenue; Epsom, 200-206 Gillies Avenue; Avondale, 37 New Windsor Rd; Onehunga, 111 Victoria St; Blockhouse Bay, 69-79 Endeavour St

The council also approved a start on the special consultative procedure for Governor Fitzroy Place – from Mayoral Drive up to St Paul St in the Learning Quarter – to be turned into a pedestrian mall.

Related stories today:

Council defers St Lukes plan change decision

Council approves Sylvia Park plan change for extra 100,000m² & 60m buildings

Want to comment? Go to the forum.

Attribution: Council meeting & agenda, story written by Bob Dey for the Bob Dey Property Report.

Published 9 April 2010

The Roger awards – insult or wakeup call? A fair assessment or a politically biased judgment? Something to be treated lightheartedly or something to react bitterly towards?

The annual awards, first made in 1997, are organised by Murray Horton of CAFCA  (the Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa) & GATT Watchdog, both Christchurch-based groups, and the primary award is for “the worst transnational corporation operating in New Zealand”.

Sometimes there are extra awards – this year, Auckland City Council & its officials won the Accomplice Award for “helping to contract out Auckland’s waste management to Transpacific and therefore acting as a template for future transference of public assets into private hands”.

But how do you make an award to somebody who doesn’t want your ironic congratulations for doing something they think is exceptionally bad? Auckland City councillor Glenda Fryer, from the minority City Vision group, wanted to present the accomplice award to her Citizens & Ratepayers-controlled council on 25 March, but her motion was pushed down to the city development committee’s meeting yesterday, and to the end of the open agenda (the spot for notices of motion).

When it came time for her motion, Cllr Fryer wanted to present the award to committee chairman Aaron Bhatnagar, who refused to accept it and told Cllr Fryer the introduction of her motion shouldn’t include walking around.

The controlling group on the council was never going to acknowledge this award, but Cllr Bhatnagar went one better, trumping Cllr Fryer’s motion with a 9-clause amendment noting various points about the 2009 council decision to disqualify local community-owned contractor Clean Stream Waiheke Ltd from the tender process for Waiheke Island’s rubbish collection & recycling contract and awarding it to Australian company Transpacific Industries Group (NZ) Ltd.

Cllr Fryer said of the award: “It was a very hard-fought award, the Business Roundtable nearly beat us.”

C&R councillor Doug Armstrong said an item which could be considered “frivolous & vexatious and affects the dignity of this committee” shouldn’t be on its agenda.

Cllr Bhatnagar commented, on his amendment: “It is unfortunate that Cllr Fryer has chosen to repoliticise the issue, but I thought it was important to restate the fact, and that the behaviour of a number of councillors (in the contract process) was reprehensible.” He said the outcome for Waiheke would be quality rubbish collection.

Labour councillor Richard Northey accepted Cllr Bhatnagar’s first 2 points were factual, but said the remainder were political statements which should be removed.

Comment:

The one skilful moment in the whole childish exercise was Cllr Bhatnagar’s trumping of Cllr Fryer’s presentation, but Cllr Bhatnagar was unable to carry that win through into quality & mature chairmanship of what might loosely be called a debate.

The exercise was a pointer to the caucus-based divisiveness of Auckland City Council, distinctly different in its political operation from the region’s other councils, where there are some alignments but none so rigidly caucused in the Auckland City style.

Looking forward just a few months to the arrival of the new Auckland Council, it was a portrayal of a style generally not accepted elsewhere in the region, but it’s a style that could dominate the new council if one faction is able to drive business through caucusing. If one succeeds, others may well follow.

Caucusing removes input from the open debate, can result in more dominant individuals lording it over the more pliant, but may also produce a well thought position. For most people elected to a council, it takes time to come to grips with the job – in many cases, the best part of their first term. Caucusing can both shelter & assist new councillors during that early stage. One thing it can’t do is hide the dearth of skilled political performers on the Auckland region’s stage.

There are few at the moment with wide or deep vision, there are few who can climb out of their local bunker and, within the divisions at Auckland City, there is negligible skill at climbing past dogma to negotiate better outcomes for the city.

Back to the Roger award & amendments:

The outcome of this essentially trivial, political-pointscoring debate was that Cllr Bhatnagar’s amendments supplanted Cllr Fryer’s acknowledgment that the council had won the Roger award.

“There are no prizes for guessing whom it is named after,” Murray Horton of CAFCA said at the awards announcement in Wellington on 11 March. And there is no questioning Mr Horton’s longtime role in pointing to what he sees as the extremely negative contribution of foreign-owned business to this country.

Published 13 November 2009

Auckland City Council’s city development committee yesterday:

endorsed a heritage policy & toolkit for management methods & incentives, to establish a heritage trust, and to request another report on feasibility & impacts of a plan change for transferable development rightsendorsed proposed plan changes 38, 39 & 43 for notification, affecting Linear Park & Wynyard Plaza in the Wynyard Quarterendorsed Cheshire St as the primary access point for a new Parnell station.

I’ll have more detail on these stories at the weekend.

Want to comment? Go to the forum.

Attribution: Council committee meeting & agenda, story written by Bob Dey for the Bob Dey Property Report.

Published 11 September 2009

Auckland City Council’s city development community reached a number of decisions and debated a number of issues yesterday, which I’ve run out of time today to present in any detail.

Detail on some, at least, will go on the website over the weekend.

Among decisions the committee made:

The city ambassador scheme is to continue at least until the end of the Rugby World Cup in 2011, after staff proposed canning itA report on the signs bylaw concerning a review of poster boards has been deferred until OctoberA report on Waiheke Island waste services has also been deferred until OctoberThe committee authorised notification of a request for expressions of interest to shortlist construction contractors for the Marine Events Centre once the Auckland Regional Council issues its decision on the resource consent applicationChanges to membership of the council’s urban design panel were agreedThe committee will proceed with the proposal for some streets to be turned into shared space – pedestrian & vehicle access to the same space – which requires amendment of the traffic bylaw; submissions will be calledCooper & Co’s revised proposal for the Seafarers site at Britomart will go forward as a private plan changeThe recommendation of independent commissioners to grant consent for the Balmoral McDonald’s drive-through takeaway outlet was debated at length; the committee agreed city development general manager John Duthie should report back in October on options the council can take.

Want to comment? Go to the forum.

Attribution: Council committee meeting & agenda, story written by Bob Dey for the Bob Dey Property Report.

Published 18 June 2009

Auckland City Council’s majority proudly kept today to its promise of an average 2% rates rise for the next financial year starting 1 July – lower than the council’s estimate of its cost of inflation, 2.5%.

The Citizens & Ratepayers majority rejected pleas from the City Vision, Labour & independent minority to put some projects back on the long-term plan agenda, either in penny-pinching form or in place of some spending related to the Rugby World Cup in 2011.

2 of those projects were the Otahuhu swimming pool and the Glen Innes Music & Arts Centre, which I’ll refer to in separate stories at the weekend relating to regional growth programmes.

This is the last financial year any of Auckland’s 7 local & one regional councils have to write an annual plan for on their own. By next June they should be thoroughly under the guiding hand of the Auckland Transition Agency, appointed to see the region’s councils through to the election of the first Auckland Council at October 2010’s local body elections.

Auckland City Council has budgeted for a rates bill averaging the council’s estimated inflation rate of 2.5% next year. But for the first financial year of the new super-city council, to June 2012, Auckland City has already factored in a 4.1% rates rise – 1.5% above its inflation rate – because of the rugby cup.

And today it agreed to the $84 million option 3 for upgrading of Queens Wharf – which this council doesn’t at this stage own or have any proprietary interest in – to be the rugby cup’s “party central”, and for subsequent use as the city’s main cruise liner terminal. The budget figures were based on a 65:35 split between Auckland & the rest of the country.

That project will add another 2% to the projected 2012 rates bill, taking the average to 6.1%. By then, of course, all the region’s cities & districts are to be merged into the single super-city, which means the spike could be dispersed around the rest of the region.

The Auckland City long-term plan shows just a 1% increase for the following year, to June 2013, compared to an estimated council inflation rate of 2.6%. By then, if the governance reform goes according to Local Government Minister Rodney Hide’s plan, all the Auckland region’s councils will be one and that 1% proposition will lost in the battle from all corners of the region for funds which, they will claim, should rightfully be spent in their patch.

However, the rushed report on the impact of the $84 million Queens Wharf options said that additional expense wouldn’t be a oncer – it would add 2% to the Auckland City rates bill “indefinitely”.

Labour councillor Richard Northey described the haste to make a Queens Wharf decision “bad process”. Gulf Islands councillor Denise Roche called it “ad hoccery” & “making a decision off the cuff”.

Council chief executive David Rankin said councillors didn’t need a site tour to see what they were planning to invest in: “We buy properties all the time without councillors looking at them.”

When City Vision councillor Glenda Fryer said: “We haven’t consulted with the people of Auckland”, finance general manager Andrew McKenzie responded: “We have. It is included (in the long-term plan). There is $30 million of funding in the long-term plan. You’re bringing it forward.”

The wharf transaction was the only moment of excitement in the final session before the council posts its budget for the next year and long-term targets for the next 10 years. The plans will actually be adopted at next week’s council meeting, on Thursday 25 June, and must then go to the transition agency for confirmation.

Although this council won’t be in charge of the long-term part of the exercise after October 2010, combined committees chairman Doug Armstrong said: “It hands a 10-year plan to the super-city which is carefully thought through. The rates increases are within the rate of inflation.

“Now I hope the staff can devote their time to marketing the exemplar to the super-city.”

Labour councillor Leila Boyle, whose ward covers southern parts of the city where greatest growth intensification is intended, differed on the achievement: “Tamaki & Maungakiekie have been targeted for additional growth. You’ve missed some opportunities here for facilities as a tradeoff for other areas which don’t have to grow.”

One issue – which is unglamorous but plays a significant role in property development in low-lying areas and has the potential to be highly destructive of Auckland’s clean image – is stormwater. At the council’s March meeting on the annual & long-term plans, Cllr Glenda Fryer called for spending on stormwater upgrades to be maintained.

At today’s meeting she called for the proposed $86 million cut in the stormwater budget for the next 10 years to be restored “to improve water quality in the harbours & urban streams, and reduce flooding”. The council majority rejected that call.

Among other points from the annual plan meeting:

The council agreed to establish a holding company with subsidiaries to govern some of its assets & activities with commercial objectives and to establish a council-controlled organisation to operate the Westhaven marina, but to defer implementing the marina organisation decision “to maintain flexibility during the transition to the new Auckland Council”. The transition agency will also need to confirm the holding company proposal.

Cllr Northey said no compelling case had been made for a council-controlled organisation, other than to hold the council’s Auckland International Airport Ltd shares.

The Mainstreet & business improvement district budgets, totalling $7.58 million, were confirmed without debate.

The uniform annual general charge will be increased from $162 to $250. The rubbish collection charge will be reduced from $210 to $183. An extra $63 recycling charge will be introduced. The targeted rate for cbd residential units will be increased to $57/unit. The targeted rate for non-residential cbd ratepayers will be increased by $2.3 million (gst excluded) to generate an estimated $13.4 million.

Adjustments will be made to development contributions for a total slightly more than last year – up $50 to $19,445 outside the Wynyard Quarter. Inside that quarter, the transport charge is higher than elsewhere ($2508 elsewhere, down $12) but has been reduced from last year – $8740 this year, $10,131 last year.

The stormwater charge is up about $560 to $4533 but the charge for public space infrastructure is down $1940 to $6619.

The charge for public space land acquisition has been changed from $3168 plu
the value of 4.59m² of land being developed to $4524 plus 3.87m².

Related stories:

18 June 2009: Auckland council holds rates down, but leaves a pill for the new super-city council to digest

18 June 2009: Council votes $54 million to dolly wharf it doesn’t own

16 June 2009: Regional money shuffle secures Queens Wharf transfer

11 June 2009: Key sees Queens Wharf as rugby cup “party central”

Want to comment? Go to the forum.

Attribution: Council & committee meeting & agenda, story written by Bob Dey for the Bob Dey Property Report.

Published 4 May 2009

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has reduced the outlook for Auckland City Council’s local currency ratings from stable to negative, although it’s affirmed the rating at AA/A-1+.

Standard and Poor’s said on Friday it revised the outlook on these ratings from stable to negative to reflect the likely change in governance structure of the greater Auckland area.

Standard & Poor’s assessment was that the credit quality of the merged Auckland Council might be equal to or slightly weaker than that of the Auckland City Council.

Auckland City Council finance & strategy committee chairman Doug Armstrong said the revised negative outlook “does not adequately reflect the benefits of the proposed changes to regional governance. The new council will be subject to the same legislative controls to operate in a financially prudent manner as the current council, which has a strong cash operating surplus & low-risk operations.

“Another factor to consider is that the new council will not only retain the ability to rate but that the rating base will be almost 3 times the size of Auckland City Council’s.”

Cllr Armstrong said he didn’t expect that this announcement would have a significant impact on the council’s cost of funds.

Want to comment? Email [email protected].

Attribution: Council release, story written by Bob Dey for the Bob Dey Property Report.

Published 4 March 2009

Auckland City Council approved its be-nice-to-the-rich 2% rates rise yesterday. The increase doesn’t come into effect until 1 July, but combined committees chairman Doug Armstrong made it clear the consultation process wouldn’t sway the council majority from its decision.

“This council is about providing leadership for the city. We’re doing that by holding rates.”

To a suggestion from City Vision & Labour councillors that options could be put in the consultation paper, or that the position of the minority group on the council could be presented in consultation documents, Cllr Armstrong said: “We don’t want confusion, with a whole lot of alternatives which wouldn’t have a chance of flying.”

He said the Citizens & Ratepayers council majority had changed course, even since the council’s last budget-setting meeting in November, in the light of economic circumstances: “I was conscious that even a 2% rate increase may be unpalatable for a lot of our citizens when we come to it in June…. What we have is a coherent direction which is about leading the city.”

City Vision councillor Glenda Fryer responded: “I think leadership is an important quality, but leadership is also about choices. You’ve got option A & option B. How can that lead to confusion?

“’No chance of flying’ – what is consultation all about? That’s not leadership at all. That’s trying to tell people you may as well not make a submission because we’re not going to listen to you.”

Amid the hundreds of pages of annual & long-term plan policies, exhortations & figures, just how the 2% increase worked out was rather hard to find. But the proposal going out to consultation clearly favours owners of more expensive homes, accentuated by an increase in uniform annual general charges.

Detail & other decisions of the council on Wednesday to come Thursday.

Want to comment? Email [email protected].

Attribution: Council meeting & agenda, story written by Bob Dey for the Bob Dey Property Report.

Published 20 February 2009

City Vision & Labour councillors on the Auckland City Council have described the Citizens & Ratepayers majority’s rates proposal as “reverse Robin Hood – robbing the poor to pay the rich”.

The minority group has released a council officers’ report showing the devastating effects of huge policy changes by theCitRats, “which will cut council rates for the well-off and massively increase them for low- & middle-income ratepayers.

City Vision-Labour leader Richard Northey said: “C&R will raise fixed charges by almost $200, from $372 to $570, in the 2009-10 rating year, which will result in the council’s rates income from higher-valued properties shifting to low- & middle-valued properties.

"This is Robin Hood in reverse! C&R’s rating policies will mean that almost two-thirds of households will face rate rises larger than 5%, 42% will face over 10% increases, more than 10% will pay in excess of 20% more next year, and one household in 250 will face paying more than 50% extra compared to this year’s rates bill.

“At the same time, the city’s millionaires will benefit hugely, with nearly every property valued over $1 million actually receiving a reduction in their rates. It is disgraceful that, in this economic crisis time, all lower- & most middle-income families will be hurt most."

Cllr Leila Boyle said: "What this high fixed charge means is that a Glen Innes, Panmure or Otahuhu property valued at $200,000 will have a rates increase of 22.4%. How can a family on the average wage sustain rates increases of this amount, especially when C&R is now boasting that they are keeping the rates increase across the city to 2%?  I am extremely upset that after my community in Tamaki has had many projects cut by C&R’s slashing & burning, there will now be many people in my ward facing rates increases of over 50%."

Website: City Vision site, staff report

Earlier story:

12 February 2009: Council majority proposes 2% rates rise & pay cut; minority does a small whine

Want to comment? Email [email protected].

Attribution: City Vision-Labour release, story written by Bob Dey for the Bob Dey Property Report.

Published 12 February 2009

Auckland City Council’s Citizens & Ratepayers majority has responded to the international economic crisis by proposing to hold the rates increase to 2%, and to freeze staff pay.

And in response to that, the City Vision & Labour minority expressed shock & surprise at the spending cut & wage freeze.

A fact of life: community-funded organisations like councils don’t get the income during downturns to keep service levels up unless they have alternative funding such as long-term debt; governments, on the other hand, can spread the effect on their balance sheets.

The council’s combined committees will debate the proposed budget, and policies for its draft 10-year plan, on Wednesday 4 March. The plan will be available in April for a month of public consultation and the council will adopt the final 10-year plan in June.

Ratepayers & other citizens (the ones who pay rent which contributes to rates, but who a good spread of councillors always thinks don’t contribute) like to get services at the lowest price – a concept which hasn’t invaded too many councils in the last decade.

The City Vision & Labour response comes in 2 parts: First, they think the rates shouldn’t be cut. Second, they warn that services will go. It’s a message distinctly short on guile. Point at a service I’ll really miss to make me unhappy (removing those attack machines that race to clean Queen St’s footpaths when a cruise ship is in probably won’t win this prize).

There are many ways to cut the bureaucratic load and, at the same time, to improve efficiency. A nice example was the unnecessary retention of senior staff in the city development committee’s meeting today, where councillors spread 10 minutes-max of very basic submissions plus a bit of guesswork/debate over 3 hours (that’s when I bailed out to go see what Jonathan Ling had to say about the Fletcher Building result).

The submissions: The real estate industry wants flexibility to make its illegal signs legit; Waiheke’s wineries want a wine trail; and Transpower is really nice, just screws up on supply occasionally. The debate? Onehunga. Councillors here & elsewhere consistently miss important points; they asked for the wrong information and got it.

The important point for deputy mayor David Hay was that the proposed rates increase would be lower than the revised council rate of inflation.

Last October the council assumed council rates of inflation (distinct from CPI or other measures) of 5%, 4.7% & 4.4% for the next 3 years, and struck a rate increase overall of 5%.

Today Cllr Hay said the council’s forecast inflation rate had been revised since December to 2.5%.

“We made a commitment to ratepayers to keep any rates increases to the level of council’s inflation or below and we are on track to deliver that again,” he said. “We are very aware of the strain on household budgets & people’s ability to pay their rates bills, so we have worked hard to find savings in the budget.

“By making rates more affordable for people, we are taking a lead in these difficult times to help the economy adjust and maximise the city’s – and the country’s – ability to navigate the economic downturn.

“As a result of the economic situation some of our costs have gone down and we are passing these savings on to ratepayers. In addition, we have agreed with the chief executive that there be no additional budget put aside for staff salary increases in the next financial year.”

The mayor, John Banks, added: “We will also continue to aggressively look for savings in other operating costs like contractor & supplier expenses. Despite the reduced rates increase, we will maintain the largest-ever capital investment in the city next year.”

Devastating for those who like a good footpath, says Northey

City Vision Labour leader Richard Northey said the decision was sent out by chief executive David Rankin but was made by the mayor, his deputy & and the male C&R committee chairmen (he chose not elaborate on the significance of that). Said Cllr Northey: "These 3% further cuts to council services & projects, coming on top of the savage cuts already announced, will be devastating for Auckland’s suburban communities who are dependent on good libraries, local parks, footpaths & community facilities to maintain their quality of life in hard economic times.

"Freezing staff salaries will intensify the uncertainty & rapid turnover of skilled staff, already nervously awaiting the Royal Commission report, and this loss of staff will reverse the hard-won improvements in staff services such as in building & resource consents and other areas of council operations, where there is a skill shortage in Auckland.

"Cutting projects even further will sabotage the Government’s attempts to energise infrastructure spending to reverse the job losses caused by the recession.  Having these devastating decisions made by a small group of skinflint hard-right councillors without consulting any of the woman C&R councillors, opposition councillors or independent councillors, let alone Auckland’s residents & ratepayers, is a total denial of democratic processes.”

City Vision councillor Cathy Casey, a member of the finance & strategy committee, said: "This C&R council who want to freeze wages is the same C&R council which said in the council’s annual report that ‘in the past year we implemented a new pay policy to ensure we attract & retain the best people and encourage high performance.’  If C&R are now abandoning that policy, does that mean they no longer care about attracting & retaining the best people and will settle for mediocre performances from current & replacement staff?"

Want to comment? Email [email protected].

Attribution: Council & Labour-City Vision releases, story written by Bob Dey for the Bob Dey Property Report.

Published 16 December 2008

Auckland City Council has approved plans to offer a 7-year retail bond issue of up to $200 million to investors.

Council finance & strategy committee chairman Doug Armstrong said: “The retail bond issue will be used to increase funding certainty by refinancing existing short-term debt and covering the remainder of the current financial year’s borrowing requirements.

“Market conditions & demand point to a retail bond issue as having the greatest likelihood of achieving the projected funding required by the council at this stage at an appropriate cost.”

The Securities (Local Authority Exemption) Amendment Act, passed this year, encourages local bodies to return to the retail debt market.

Want to comment? Email [email protected].

Attribution: Council release, story written by Bob Dey for the Bob Dey Property Report.