Auckland City Council released its Unitary Plan for consultation last week, and it's stirred the ire of the Herald and betrayed the worst NIMBYism of, particularly, residents of the North Shore. They object to the perceived incursion of 'high rise' apartment blocks and the Herald has helpfully published mocked-up pictures of Warsaw-like suburbs.
In fact the Unitary Plan is simply proposing for building 'a little bit more up, rather than out,' and there are already 'high rise' (more than two storey) apartment blocks in Browns Bay, near the beach above the parade of cafes, and they're desirable places to live. The new Hobsonville Point development is also in great demand, yet is also built to the 'mixed housing' model that we are told that Aucklanders don't want. It's a contradiction.
The strongest objections come from people who already own their properties, not those who are struggling to buy their first home. The Government's housing minister, Nick Smith, has also steamed into the debate in the most arrogant and typically-National manner, saying they will bulldoze their planning conditions onto the region and simply build out, rather than up. This despite Auckland already being the second most-sprawling city in the world, after Los Angeles. It's as if they simply want to pave the bloody place all the way up to Kaitaia.
What most of the 'out not up' brigade fail to see is that building out is, simply put, a massive gamble on oil prices. Auckland's public transport is poor and, again because of pigheaded opposition from central Government, is unlikely to quickly improve. Government wants roads, roads, roads, more roads and is simply not interested in public transport alternatives. It's dinosaur thinking that puts all the costs on the consumer - 'small government' bullshit. By building out one condemns home owners to a long, expensive commute in a car they have to maintain and fill with increasingly-expensive petrol.
It does not take a genius to realise that going down the 'out not up' model will effectively - until public transport catches up or local job opportunities increase - create ghettos on the fringes of the city (as is happening in Melbourne), as people who can afford to drift towards the centre of town because they can no longer afford to (or do not want to) run their car over longish distances, sending the prices of housing tumbling on the outskirts. I pity the poor fuckers who are being pushed by the Government into buying a place way out in the sticks and being forced to drive everywhere. It's a small-minded way to develop New Zealand's biggest city.
