including the controversial Delmore<\/a> project near \u014crewa, have consent based on providing their own infrastructure such as wastewater treatment plants.<\/p>\nMayor Wayne Brown has been an outspoken critic of the developments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese things are best stopped at the start. In some cases, the horse has bolted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s not their problem, it\u2019ll become our problem. The s*** ends up here. The costs will be astronomical.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown asked staff to request the fast-track panel members meet with councillors to hear their concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan we influence the group of commissioners the Government are calling \u2018experts\u2019? I wouldn\u2019t call anyone who thought of the idea of trucking effluent to Whang\u0101rei an expert. An idiot would come to mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
The council said legally, it\u2019s ultimately the council that picks up the bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy understanding is that it will always end up with us if there\u2019s a problem, or if a residents association ends up not being able to pay for it,\u201d chief adviser for growth Bridgit Duffield told councillors.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 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\u2019s more likely those will be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said that particularly with water, the regulator expected council to \u201crespond and solve\u201d any problems, no matter who owned the services.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can be left with a very large bill at the end of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some councillors were astonished at that response.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is quite literally a s***show,\u201d councillor Loti Fuli said. \u201cWhen things turn to s***, it\u2019s going to be us who have to step in and fix it and pay for it.\u201d <\/p>\n
All were clear a strong message needed to be sent to developers and anyone considering buying the properties.<\/p>\n
Some discussion was had about putting warnings on LIMs and other official documents that the council would not provide services.<\/p>\n
![\"Councillor]()
Councillor Maurice Williamson warned the situation facing Auckland Council could be a “catastrophic failure”. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this turns to custard and does not work, we will not step in,\u201d councillor Maurice Williamson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis could be a catastrophic failure.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are nearly 100 housing-associated projects around the country at varying stages in the fast-track process, from being \u201clisted\u201d (which means it goes straight to the consenting stage) to approved.<\/p>\n
About a quarter of those are in Auckland.<\/p>\n
Some councillors said pressure needed to be put on central Government and political parties to backtrack on fast-track.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are in a weak position because there seems to be a reluctance to confront the Government and political parties… We\u2019re going to be on a slippery slope unless we draw a line,\u201d councillor Mike Lee said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather 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\u2019s all bizarre and contradictory and we need to push back, on a solid legal and financial footing, otherwise we are facing an existential threat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hills said he, alongside the mayor, had been pushing back.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve spoken to ministers [Chris] Bishop, the Prime Minister, Simon Watts a number of times on this. I\u2019ve done 20 media interviews on this, we\u2019ve been on the front page of the Herald multiple times, we are pushing back, but we are limited,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can push back through normal levels, but this paper today is taking the more nuclear option of, \u2018We might not provide services, even though you are paying rates, we might not provide animal control, noise, whatever\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some believed it should go further.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems like at every turn, the deeper pockets get what they want,\u201d Wait\u0101kere councillor Shane Henderson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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\u2019t allow it, it needs to be changed. Government parties, please listen to our advocacy and do the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williamson, a former National MP, believed the tide had turned against fast-tracking housing developments and public opposition was growing \u201cby the day\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think before long you\u2019ll see the Government start to park some of the residential ones. They\u2019ll realise their backbenches are copping too much flak. This won\u2019t last for long before it disappears.\u201d<\/p>\n
All councillors voted on establishing a joined-up response to the developments.<\/p>\n
Duffield said the council needed to be intentional and clear. <\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s imagine the extreme where we say, \u2018No we don\u2019t have the money, we\u2019re not going to provide a park, we\u2019re not going to upgrade that road, we\u2019re not going to upgrade our service levels\u2019. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat may be something we choose to do and say in how to respond. Or we may say, \u2018We will provide the infrastructure, we will service it and we will charge you to do that\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hills pointed out the Government\u2019s planned rate caps also included targeted rates.<\/p>\n
That limited council\u2019s ability to charge private development more money for services.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to be clear to the people buying in how many thousands you\u2019ll be paying for roads and we can\u2019t supply the services. Either we reduce or don\u2019t 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. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hills said to councillors: \u201cI know it\u2019s not palatable, but we have to do what we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Staff will present options to councillors in October.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Shore councillor Richard Hills, who chairs the planning committee, said: \u201cThe team has been very clear in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[25348,51,5205,26519,24570,170,24572,64600,2082,42,78,2374,43,603,90,11664,1523,2171,15508,139159,1865,40,38,41,39,5905],"class_list":["post-594914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-anger","tag-auckland","tag-council","tag-councillors","tag-developers","tag-development","tag-fasttrack","tag-fiery","tag-for","tag-headlines","tag-in","tag-meeting","tag-news","tag-nuclear","tag-on","tag-option","tag-over","tag-plans","tag-residential","tag-spilled","tag-today","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-vote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594914","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=594914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}