North Shore councillor Richard Hills, who chairs the planning committee, said: “The team has been very clear in our opposition to fast tracks, but they seem to be approved no matter what.”
Among the resolutions passed, staff will now look at which legal and regulatory powers are available to ensure the council can recover the greatest possible share of the capital and operating costs of unanticipated growth.
It also wants advice on whether it can reduce the levels of service, or not service at all, such developments.
Council estimates 50,000-60,000 extra dwellings are being promised through fast-track developments outside the usual planning process.
It also believes it will cost an extra $5 billion in operating and servicing costs because of the infrastructure requirements.
The 1250-home Delmore development near Ōrewa is progressing under the fast-track consenting regime.
Many of the developments, including the controversial Delmore project near Ōrewa, have consent based on providing their own infrastructure such as wastewater treatment plants.
Mayor Wayne Brown has been an outspoken critic of the developments.
“These things are best stopped at the start. In some cases, the horse has bolted,” he said.
“If it’s not their problem, it’ll become our problem. The s*** ends up here. The costs will be astronomical.”
Brown asked staff to request the fast-track panel members meet with councillors to hear their concerns.
“Can we influence the group of commissioners the Government are calling ‘experts’? I wouldn’t call anyone who thought of the idea of trucking effluent to Whangārei an expert. An idiot would come to mind.”
The council said legally, it’s ultimately the council that picks up the bill.
“My understanding is that it will always end up with us if there’s a problem, or if a residents association ends up not being able to pay for it,” chief adviser for growth Bridgit Duffield told councillors.
“In this country, private wastewater is being set up without the same regulations as overseas. In Australia, there are people monitoring the set up of private systems, so it’s more likely those will be successful.”
She said that particularly with water, the regulator expected council to “respond and solve” any problems, no matter who owned the services.
“We can be left with a very large bill at the end of it.”
Some councillors were astonished at that response.
“This is quite literally a s***show,” councillor Loti Fuli said. “When things turn to s***, it’s going to be us who have to step in and fix it and pay for it.”
All were clear a strong message needed to be sent to developers and anyone considering buying the properties.
Some discussion was had about putting warnings on LIMs and other official documents that the council would not provide services.
Councillor Maurice Williamson warned the situation facing Auckland Council could be a “catastrophic failure”. Photo / Michael Craig
“If this turns to custard and does not work, we will not step in,” councillor Maurice Williamson said.
“This could be a catastrophic failure.”
There are nearly 100 housing-associated projects around the country at varying stages in the fast-track process, from being “listed” (which means it goes straight to the consenting stage) to approved.
About a quarter of those are in Auckland.
Some councillors said pressure needed to be put on central Government and political parties to backtrack on fast-track.
“We are in a weak position because there seems to be a reluctance to confront the Government and political parties… We’re going to be on a slippery slope unless we draw a line,” councillor Mike Lee said.
“Rather than talking to the hand-picked commissioners, we need to talk to the decision-makers. We are in an untenable position, we have a rates cap, but we have a potential blowout from 60,000 unplanned developments. It’s all bizarre and contradictory and we need to push back, on a solid legal and financial footing, otherwise we are facing an existential threat.”
Hills said he, alongside the mayor, had been pushing back.
“We’ve spoken to ministers [Chris] Bishop, the Prime Minister, Simon Watts a number of times on this. I’ve done 20 media interviews on this, we’ve been on the front page of the Herald multiple times, we are pushing back, but we are limited,” he said.
“We can push back through normal levels, but this paper today is taking the more nuclear option of, ‘We might not provide services, even though you are paying rates, we might not provide animal control, noise, whatever’.”
Some believed it should go further.
“It seems like at every turn, the deeper pockets get what they want,” Waitākere councillor Shane Henderson said.
“We are disempowered at every turn by central government. We need to urgently address this problem. We need at the next meeting some actual strong options. They must be strong and uncompromising as much as the law allows. And where the law doesn’t allow it, it needs to be changed. Government parties, please listen to our advocacy and do the right thing.”
Williamson, a former National MP, believed the tide had turned against fast-tracking housing developments and public opposition was growing “by the day”.
“I think before long you’ll see the Government start to park some of the residential ones. They’ll realise their backbenches are copping too much flak. This won’t last for long before it disappears.”
All councillors voted on establishing a joined-up response to the developments.
Duffield said the council needed to be intentional and clear.
“Let’s imagine the extreme where we say, ‘No we don’t have the money, we’re not going to provide a park, we’re not going to upgrade that road, we’re not going to upgrade our service levels’.
“That may be something we choose to do and say in how to respond. Or we may say, ‘We will provide the infrastructure, we will service it and we will charge you to do that’.”
Hills pointed out the Government’s planned rate caps also included targeted rates.
That limited council’s ability to charge private development more money for services.
“We need to be clear to the people buying in how many thousands you’ll be paying for roads and we can’t supply the services. Either we reduce or don’t supply services, or we charge more. The issue with charging more is if rates caps come in, targeted rates, they tip us over the 4% [and] we cannot apply them.
“We are hamstrung in every direction to actually do this. Hopefully a Government will listen and the new developers… will realise we are not going to suddenly come to the party on both infrastructure and servicing the areas.”
Hills said to councillors: “I know it’s not palatable, but we have to do what we can.”
Staff will present options to councillors in October.
Katie Bradford is a Senior Correspondent at the Herald. She has been a broadcast journalist for over 20 years and was based in the press gallery for 10 years. She specialises in politics, business and Auckland issues.