And back in 2015, at a public meeting in Kohimarama I attended and reported on, she said that if the draft Auckland Unitary Plan (AUP) was adopted, there would be \u201ccivil war in Auckland for the next 20 years\u201d. <\/p>\n
Fletcher consistently says she supports greater density in the city, but done in the right way and in the right places. But equally consistently, she has opposed every plan for density. <\/p>\n
The city has proceeded with more density anyway, but not really at pace. What\u2019s happening far more quickly is sprawl: to the north, south, east and west. <\/p>\n
Because there are no neighbours to object, it\u2019s easier to sprawl than build up. But it\u2019s not cheaper or better for the city. <\/p>\n
All that sprawl puts appalling pressure on the transport network, especially the motorways, and it costs the council (that is, us) a lot more in the provision of services. The new wastewater plant at Snells Beach near Warkworth has a $450 million pricetag. <\/p>\n
PC120, the \u201cdevastating proposal\u201d Fletcher is now campaigning against, addresses this. It allows development to focus on town centres, train and busway stations, and along arterial routes. <\/p>\n
It abandons the MDRS. Most of suburban Auckland will retain its single and two-storey zoning. And it introduces, for the first time, tough regulations for building on land at risk of coastal erosion and flooding. <\/p>\n
I asked Fletcher why she was opposed to a plan that really does appear to focus growth in the right places. Why does she keep catastrophising each new plan? I asked why she thinks PC120 is worse than the \u201cgang rape\u201d of PC78 and \u201ccivil war\u201d of the AUP. And given that she says she supports density when it\u2019s done well, is there any density proposal she has ever supported? <\/p>\n
She responded that she would \u201cdecline to comment or participate in your story on this topic\u201d. <\/p>\n
To be fair, the density focus is squarely on Fletcher\u2019s own ward, which includes Mt Eden, Kingsland, Sandringham and Mt Albert. <\/p>\n
But there\u2019s a reason for this. It\u2019s close to town, has good water infrastructure with better coming, there\u2019s scope for more schools, and most of all there are five railway stations. <\/p>\n
If density makes the rail network popular, it will be frequent and well maintained, and that will do more than anything else to ease the city\u2019s road congestion and lower carbon emissions. <\/p>\n
Fletcher\u2019s ward also has a lot of \u201ccharacter housing\u201d, mainly villas, bungalows and cottages that are at least 100 years old. But while PC120 doesn\u2019t protect all of them from development, it does protect most. <\/p>\n
And the valuable views<\/a> of Maungawhau\/Mt Eden, \u014cwairaka\/Mt Albert and Puket\u0101papa\/Mt Roskill? They\u2019re protected too, by special legislation. <\/p>\n In my view, after the city centre, Auckland doesn\u2019t have a better place for density. <\/p>\n Council planner John Duguid told a public meeting in Mt Eden last week that public interest in PC120 is high. The council has been running webinars to explain it, and will also host four big public meetings in different parts of the city in the coming days. <\/p>\n West: Monday November 24, 6.30pm, Te Manawa, Kohuhu Ln, Westgate. South\/East: Tuesday November 25, 6.30pm, Te Puke \u014d Tara Community Centre, Newbury St, \u014ctara. To attend, please register here prior: Info session – SOUTH \/ EAST<\/a> North: Wednesday 26 November, 6.30pm, North Lounge, North Harbour Stadium. Central\/East: Monday 1 December, 6.30pm, Aotea Centre. <\/p>\n They\u2019re asking people to register <\/a>prior to attending: <\/p>\n The mayor\u2019s satellite phone <\/p>\n Mayor Wayne Brown revealed at a council meeting last week that he was given a satellite phone on his first summer break and told to keep it with him at all times. So he dutifully took it out on his boat. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was only when I got back that I discovered it had no batteries,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I had no idea how to use it.\u201d <\/p>\n Probably all good now. <\/p>\n Getting bigger but not all over <\/p>\n New data from Statistics NZ reveals Auckland is the fastest-growing part of New Zealand, because of international immigration and births. <\/p>\n In the year to June, the city grew by a net 17,700 people: far ahead of Christchurch, the next biggest grower, with a net change of 3980. <\/p>\n The biggest growth occurred in Howick and other eastern suburbs, Papakura and the westie epicentre of Henderson-Massey. <\/p>\n But the Auckland number is not as high as it might have been, because more people are leaving the city than arriving from other parts of the country. <\/p>\n The two wards losing the most people are Waitemat\u0101, which extends from Herne Bay across Ponsonby and the central city to Parnell, and the eastern suburbs of \u014cr\u0101kei, from Remuera to St Heliers. <\/p>\n In the whole country, only Wellington is losing more people than them. <\/p>\n What\u2019s going on? Wealthier people \u2013 or their children \u2013 leaving for overseas, leaving behind expensive housing that recent arrivals can\u2019t afford? <\/p>\n \u2018Something fishy\u2019: Voter fraud allegations <\/p>\n Allegations of voting-paper theft, intimidation of voters and other voting irregularities during last month\u2019s Auckland Council election were presented<\/a> to the Manukau District Court on Friday. <\/p>\n And in a separate exercise, the police have revealed they are investigating 16 complaints of alleged fraud. These complaints were referred to them by Election Services, the company that ran the election. <\/p>\n Both matters relate to the election of the \u014ctara-Papatoetoe Local Board. <\/p>\n The court case concerns a petition of inquiry under the Local Electoral Act 2001, which has been lodged by Lehopoaome Vi Hausia. If successful, it could result in a judicial review of the Papatoetoe results. <\/p>\n The police investigation will determine whether anyone should face criminal charges. <\/p>\n Hausia was deputy chair of the board in the 2022-2025 term, but lost his seat in the recent election. All four seats in the board\u2019s Papatoetoe subdivision were won by members of a new group, the Papatoetoe Action Team. <\/p>\n The successful candidates were Kunal Bhalla, Kushma Nair, Sandeep Saini and Paramjeet Singh. None has any previous political experience in New Zealand. <\/p>\n Hausia is a member of the Labour Party and the board has previously been dominated by Labour members. But in previous years self-declared \u201ccentre-right independents\u201d have also won selection. <\/p>\n Since the election, social media has carried many complaints about the result, from across the political spectrum. <\/p>\n Hausia\u2019s petition alleges; \u201cStatistics and turnout anomalies [were] inconstant with historic and current voting patterns in Papatoetoe\u201d. <\/p>\n It also alleges there were \u201cirregularities in the handling and verification of special and duplicate votes, … an unprecedented surge in special voting [and] discrepancies and inaccuracies in the list of persons from whom voting documents were received\u201d. <\/p>\n He notes that the total votes for the local board rose in Papatoetoe but fell everywhere else. Also, that while candidates who were standing again received similar voter support compared to 2022, the Action Team candidates received at least 50% more votes than all the rest. <\/p>\n In Hausia\u2019s own case, 3117 votes were enough to get him elected in 2022, but despite growing that to 3254 this year, he was still far short of the 4500+ recorded by the successful candidates. <\/p>\n The Action Team says it did well because it ran a good campaign. <\/p>\n Bhalla says; \u201cOur campaign placed considerable emphasis on community outreach, door-to-door engagement, and voter education, encouraging residents to enrol and take part in local elections\u201d. <\/p>\n It\u2019s clear the Action Team did very well to engage a large number of new voters, and that\u2019s something our local body elections really need, nationwide. Is that all it is? <\/p>\n Hausia is not convinced. \u201cYou don\u2019t need to be a data scientist to know when something fishy is going on,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n He points to an anomaly that emerged in the final, official count, which includes special votes: the Action Team all lost votes from the earlier count. <\/p>\n This can happen when voting papers are stolen. If your voting papers fail to arrive in the mail, you can apply for new papers, and the votes you cast with these will be counted as special votes. <\/p>\n Organisers will then discover if you, or someone using your name, has voted twice. Where they find two sets of voting papers under one name, they count the special vote and discard the ordinary one. <\/p>\n The initial complaint referred by Election Services to the police included allegations of \u201csevere electoral malpractice\u201d, including \u201cnightly vote stealing by a team of young boys\u201d, voters being instructed how to vote \u201cinside the polling booths\u201d, and other instances of voters \u201cin places like temples and churches\u201d being told how to vote. <\/p>\n Bhalla says the Action Team \u201ccategorically deny any involvement in unlawful or unethical conduct\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cI can only emphasise that we have not been presented with any credible evidence whatsoever to support the claims you mention.\u201d <\/p>\n Although the police have told the Herald they are investigating, Bhalla says; \u201cNo agency has contacted me or the Papatoetoe-\u014ctara Action Team in relation to these accusations\u201d. <\/p>\n The police say; \u201cEnquiries remain ongoing and we are working through the complaints\u201d.<\/p>\n They will \u201cbe in contact with people in due course\u201d. <\/p>\n Hausia says the district court has reviewed his petition and \u201cfound cause to proceed to a hearing\u201d. <\/p>\n The presentation on Friday was expected to be procedural, with the substantial hearing to come on December 8. <\/p>\n Get on the grass <\/p>\n What about this guy? The Botanic Gardens in Manurewa have set themselves the task this summer of persuading us that grass in not \u201cboring\u201d. And they\u2019ve employed Grassman, a performance artist in a living grass costume grown onsite at the Gardens. <\/p>\n Grassman is the work of English grass artist Ashley Peevor and the whole show, called Tangled Roots, is an exhibition that explores \u201cthe tangled relationship between grass and humanity\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cDiscover the astonishing links between grasses \u2013 like wheat, rice and maize \u2013 and everything from the rise of civilisations and the Great Pyramids, to breakfast and even house cats,\u201d the organisers say. <\/p>\n Curator Greg Meylan calls it; \u201cAn epic underdog story when it comes to the plant world, one we\u2019re excited to share with Aucklanders through this exhibition, which is part natural history, part cultural exploration, and part summer festival \u2014 all rooted in grass. <\/p>\n \u201cYou won\u2019t regret stopping by and you certainly won\u2019t look at the grass family in the same way.\u201d <\/p>\n Tangled Roots runs until late February. <\/p>\n It takes an Aussie <\/p>\n It\u2019s official. Well, official according to the Daily Mail in Australia, at least. Their head of lifestyle correspondent Laura House visited Auckland recently and proclaimed it<\/a> the most underrated place in New Zealand. <\/p>\n \u201cLike so many Australians, my imagination had always been captured by the South Island: mirror-still lakes, rugged peaks and road trips,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n \u201cI was not prepared for Auckland to be the first New Zealand city to steal my heart.\u201d <\/p>\n What did she like? All the usuals: the mild climate and \u201clong beach days in summer, winery wanders in autumn, winter festivals and spring hikes\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cThe City of Sails has it all: waterfront espresso bars, volcanic lookout points, island wineries, hidden oyster shacks and late-night brasseries. It feels both local and effortlessly cosmopolitan … and perhaps that balance is its magic.\u201d <\/p>\n So there. Now you know. <\/p>\n To sign up for Simon Wilson\u2019s weekly newsletter, click<\/a> here<\/a>, select Love this City and save your preferences. For a step-by-step guide, click<\/a> here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Public consultations will be open until December 19 on the council\u2019s new residential zoning proposals, known as Plan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,2199,3685,6440,6043,6101,3499,6044,2882,6048,111,43,6042,139,69,691,2170,6046,6045,6037,223,1961,6047,6039,6041,6038,6040,8598],"class_list":{"0":"post-146953","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-auckland","9":"tag-city","10":"tag-events","11":"tag-ever","12":"tag-exploring","13":"tag-good","14":"tag-growth","15":"tag-ideas","16":"tag-love","17":"tag-makaurau","18":"tag-new-zealand","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-newsletter","21":"tag-newzealand","22":"tag-nz","23":"tag-or","24":"tag-plan","25":"tag-potential","26":"tag-reality","27":"tag-simon","28":"tag-the","29":"tag-this","30":"tag-tmaki","31":"tag-transcript","32":"tag-weekly","33":"tag-wilson","34":"tag-wilsons","35":"tag-worst"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Wayne Brown in his office the day after his re-election. Photo \/ Sylvie Whinray <\/p>\n
The city that hasn’t stopped growing – but not all over. Photo \/ Chris Tarpey<\/p>\n
Vi Hausia, former deputy chair of the \u014ctara-Papatoetoe Local Board, who has petitioned the court for a review of the results. <\/p>\n
The Papatoetoe subdivision of the \u014ctara-Papatoetoe Local Board was the only area in Auckland where voting numbers rose in this year’s election.<\/p>\n
The successful Papatoetoe-\u014ctara Action Team.<\/p>\n
Grassman: The yeti-like creature grown from grasses in the nursery of the Auckland Botanic Gardens, in collaboration with English grass artist Ashley Peevor.<\/p>\n
Marvel Bar & Grill at 1 Jellicoe St, North Wharf, is among Auckland waterfront’s most popular venues. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n