Auckland Council’s Policy, Planning and Development Committee is taking action on unanticipated developments due to the increasing pressure they place on budgets, infrastructure and services.
Unanticipated developments are those built outside Auckland’s planned growth areas, or before infrastructure is ready to support them. Auckland Council has identified areas for future growth with planned infrastructure, but says developments are still being proposed outside these areas.
Chair of Auckland Council’s Policy, Planning and Development Committee, Councillor Richard Hills says Council supports well-planned growth, but unanticipated developments significantly impact budgets and infrastructure.
“Large developments are increasingly proposed where growth isn’t planned and infrastructure isn’t in place,” said Cr Hills.
“The council is then forced to fund the long-term infrastructure and service costs with budgets that are already tightly pinched. The fast-track approvals scheme has magnified this, and rates capping will further limit councils’ funding.
“It’s increasingly important that unanticipated developments help fund the infrastructure and services that support them. We are proposing to recover more from developers and future residents of these areas or potentially reduce or deprioritise council services in these areas.
“Auckland Council strongly supports development that creates more housing choices where there is good access to infrastructure, transport and services. The Auckland Unitary Plan has boosted this significantly. Plan Change 120 will build on this further by enabling more homes in urban areas.
“However, ratepayers cannot be expected to carry the costs of developments that we have had no opportunity to budget for. Aucklanders expect us to act on this. This approach will give greater clarity on where council investment will and won’t be prioritised,” he says.
Mayor Wayne Brown said that driving greenfield housing into rural areas through fast-track was not a smart way to plan a city.
“We need developers to pay for the full costs of the growth these projects create rather than loading the costs on to ratepayers,” said the Mayor.
“I’d be happier with fast-track if it was fast. There needs to be a maximum window of six months to start building and it shouldn’t be transferrable.”
The Council says the known pipeline of unanticipated development is currently around 50,000 to 60,000 new dwellings. Each needs infrastructure and services, costing the council approximately $3 billion, excluding water, wastewater, infrastructure operating costs or non-growth costs.
Development contributions are the main tool the council has to recover growth-related investment. The Council says unanticipated developments such as fast-tracks limit its ability to recover the full costs of growth through development contributions, as it cannot budget in advance for the additional investments in services and infrastructure.
Auckland Council has recently appealed two separate decisions approving developments through the fast-track scheme.
Council staff will propose a response to unanticipated development at the Policy, Planning and Development Committee meeting in October.
