Park selldown report behind closed doors
Report says the council could bank between $200 million and $600m
Ahighly sensitive report calling for a selldown of parks in Auckland to prop up the finances of the cashstrapped council is heading behind closed doors for finetuning by councillors.
The report says the council could bank between $200 million and $600m from selling parkland and open space to developers and others over the next few years.
Parkland to go on the block has not been identified, but the council has tested the idea on two Local Board areas for land that does not meet its “parks provision policy” in terms of function, configuration and location.
The two selected areas have found the sale of “nonservice” parkland outside the policy could boost the council’s coffers by between $200m and $600m after some of the proceeds are used to buy more suitable parkland.
The report was considered on June 7 by the appointments, performance review and value for money committee chaired by Mayor Phil Goff, which recommended it go to a closed-door workshop of councillors and be reported back to the committee.
When the report appeared A 2015 review of council assets pinpointed golf courses as a source of land for housing.
as an open item on the governing body meeting yesterday, Goff said he had taken it out with the agreement of committee members to workshop the issues.
“I did not want a report that looked like a fait accompli before we have worked through it in detail, that is just good process,” Goff said.
Manurewa-Papakura councillor Daniel Newman is vehemently opposed to the “fire-sale” of parkland, saying it is being justified in part to meet the financial targets in the new 10-year budget.
“After we’ve offended almost every community in Auckland and netted between $200m and $600m from the proceeds of sale of parks and open space land, what will be left to sell?” he said.
The sale of parkland is not new. Mayor Phil Goff has publicly spoken about the sale of golf courses, such as Remuera, for housing. A 2.8ha block of land previously leased to Remuera Golf Course and not used for golf is currently being sold for housing.
The report says parkland is currently sold on a cumbersome and ad hoc basis and the council should develop a more efficient system after consulting with the community and identifying “nonservice” parkland to be sold.
There is the risk, the report says, of opposition from Local Boards and communities who view parkland as specific to their area, rather than one element in a network.
A no-holds-barred review of council assets by Cameron and Partners in 2015 suggested the council could sell 5 per cent of its parks for $2.25b. It added the Remuera, Chamberlain Park, Pupuke and Takapuna golf courses could be sold for $1.4b for housing with 30 per cent reserved for public space.
At the time when Goff was considering standing for the Auckland mayoralty, he said: “Why contemplate selling parks when the population is forecast to grow by one million? We need more, not less, green space.”
Last night Goff told the Herald that “parks and open space are important community assets and vital to Auckland as our city grows. More work is needed on the review before councillors can consider any recommendations.” Bone-chillingly cold mornings will continue until the weekend after Auckland had its coldest morning in three years with temperatures getting down to -2.4C yesterday.
The cold weather this week had residents turning on the heaters and energy provider Vector said it experienced its second highest amount of power used on record.
On Tuesday, Aucklanders used 32.8 gigawatt hours of power — enough to light up a full Vector Lights show on Auckland’s harbour bridge and have it running every night for more than 167 years.
That was the highest demand for electricity across Vector’s network this year, and 2.3 gigawatt hours more than last winter’s heaviest usage day.
At roughly 6pm that night, Aucklanders used 1833 megawatts of energy instantaneously, second only to the winter of 2012 when peak usage reached approximately 1941 megawatts.
To put that in perspective, 1833 megawatts of energy would be enough to power 450 floodlight lit rugby games in stadiums the size of Eden Park at the same time.
Across the country, people woke up yesterday to a thick frost both underfoot and coated over their vehicles.
Weatherwatch.co.nz’s Philip Duncan said the country was sitting under a large system of high pressure coming over from the west.
While it will linger for a few days, a “sharp” cold snap will bring rougher weather and sub-zero temperatures in a wider portion over the inner portion of the North Island, bringing more frosts.
MetService meteorologist Tui McInnes said the weather will slightly ease over the course of today before it starts to plummet again tomorrow.
“We might find that is a particularly chilly start to the weekend,” he said.
After we’ve offended almost every community in Auckland and netted between $200m and $600m . . . what will be left to sell? Manurewa-Papakura councillor Daniel Newman