Christchurch follows up rejection of densification with plan to charge developers with too few trees; Auckland carved out swathes of prime densification areas from its plan; Legal clashes loom
A naive question. Will a financial penalty regime incentivise developers to plant or preserve the trees? Or will they cheerfully (or maybe grumpily) pay up and pocket the considerably greater return from fitting in a bigger or additional residential unit, carpark, drive or whatever? I’m all for densification, but think it needs to incorporate more, more carefully thought-through carveouts for green and recreational space than any proposals I have seen. This for both environmental protection and people’s physical, social and mental health.
I recently had a conversation with a planner working at one of the firms involved in the massive new green fields development near Pukekohe. They could talk all about how hard it was to get the Council to support the development.
But as soon as I brought up the topic of how the Council was also preventing development in efficient places closer to the city and transport links through the character overlays, I got a look which suggested I had started speaking a foreign language. They were fully prepared to conflate the character overlays with heritage registration. Suggests to me that conflation is quite deeply ingrained…
There are some really nice apartments in unused inner city buildings. Now that working from home is more normal, are there not already buildings not needed for offices that can become housing instead. And as an aside, it hadn't quite struck me the extent to which central government dictates to local government. No wonder so many things don't work. Not exactly democracy.
The artists images of the way we should be living now are a total put-off. They don't have real people. 'Get people out of their cars and on to their feet and cycling.' Excuse me? which people? In my younger years I cycled most places and am all in favour of cycle tracks taking space from roads, but who is in those drawings of getting cars out of the town? Not me and my now much older friends. We are clearly not wanted in town now - maybe why some of us grumble about it - not me - of course. The basic idea is good, but it looks like lego, not real. As an occupational therapist I spent time helping people negotiate our current world - they too are not in the artists' impressions. More reality needed.
Yup nothing either institution does is based on evidence or actual costs and responsibility. It’s a mess and seems to just reflect idealogy of oppression without considering laws and obligations instead feels and reckons without a skerrick of logic, cohesion or facts. Nice to hear you point these lack of facts or resource to get anything done sensibly out on behalf of taxpayers who should expect much much better service and accountability for their involuntary contributions to Governance supposedly in their interests. All pretty depressing and frustrating for us all. Sick of all the culture war distractions as well to keep people from noticing it.
A naive question. Will a financial penalty regime incentivise developers to plant or preserve the trees? Or will they cheerfully (or maybe grumpily) pay up and pocket the considerably greater return from fitting in a bigger or additional residential unit, carpark, drive or whatever? I’m all for densification, but think it needs to incorporate more, more carefully thought-through carveouts for green and recreational space than any proposals I have seen. This for both environmental protection and people’s physical, social and mental health.
How long until National plays into this anti-intensification trend, and abandons support for the cross-party agreement on intensification?
I recently had a conversation with a planner working at one of the firms involved in the massive new green fields development near Pukekohe. They could talk all about how hard it was to get the Council to support the development.
But as soon as I brought up the topic of how the Council was also preventing development in efficient places closer to the city and transport links through the character overlays, I got a look which suggested I had started speaking a foreign language. They were fully prepared to conflate the character overlays with heritage registration. Suggests to me that conflation is quite deeply ingrained…
There are some really nice apartments in unused inner city buildings. Now that working from home is more normal, are there not already buildings not needed for offices that can become housing instead. And as an aside, it hadn't quite struck me the extent to which central government dictates to local government. No wonder so many things don't work. Not exactly democracy.
The artists images of the way we should be living now are a total put-off. They don't have real people. 'Get people out of their cars and on to their feet and cycling.' Excuse me? which people? In my younger years I cycled most places and am all in favour of cycle tracks taking space from roads, but who is in those drawings of getting cars out of the town? Not me and my now much older friends. We are clearly not wanted in town now - maybe why some of us grumble about it - not me - of course. The basic idea is good, but it looks like lego, not real. As an occupational therapist I spent time helping people negotiate our current world - they too are not in the artists' impressions. More reality needed.
Yup nothing either institution does is based on evidence or actual costs and responsibility. It’s a mess and seems to just reflect idealogy of oppression without considering laws and obligations instead feels and reckons without a skerrick of logic, cohesion or facts. Nice to hear you point these lack of facts or resource to get anything done sensibly out on behalf of taxpayers who should expect much much better service and accountability for their involuntary contributions to Governance supposedly in their interests. All pretty depressing and frustrating for us all. Sick of all the culture war distractions as well to keep people from noticing it.