Council chooses parking over housing

In June and July a series of guest posts ran on Greater Auckland about Co-housing, and the proposed Co-housing development in Grey Lynn. In summary these posts: Introduced the concept of co-housing Explained the proposed co-housing development on Surrey Crescent in Grey Lynn Noted the planning challenges the scheme faced, being located in a special character area Resource Consent for the scheme was submitted in March, with the application notified to households nearby in June 2018.…
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Sylvia Park growth plans

Sylvia Park is already Auckland’s largest shopping centre, but it’s likely to get even bigger in the next few years. Kiwi Property, who own the centre, have plans to expand the retail offering, as well as adding office buildings. In the long term, even things like apartments or hotels could be added, although those aren’t part of the current plans.…
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Parking must pay its way

Parking, parking, parking! In many places in many cities – even eco-friendly German cities – the price of parking is distorted by minimum parking requirements (MPRs). In these places, local governments regulate an over-supply of parking, which in turn holds down prices.…
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Minimum parking requirements in Parliament

Minimum parking requirements have been getting some long-overdue attention at central government level after the release of the Productivity Commission’s report recommending their removal from district plans. Finance Minister Bill English has also expressed his support for binning minimums. So last week Green Party transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter – a longtime advocate of removing MPRs – asked Housing Minister Nick Smith whether the government had any plans to legislate to remove them from district plans: Smith’s responses were a bit evasive but there were still a few interesting points raised in the back-and-forth: Smith said that it would be complex to legislate to remove MPRs as they are in district plans rather than the RMA.…
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