Then, now, and into the future

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Then, now, and into the future

I commented recently that there appeared to be little interest in the local body elections. That changed with the arrival of a team waging a serious challenge to the Whangarei District Council (WDC) with a full slate of candidates and a high profile campaign. http://www.gowhangarei.kiwi/

Among their policies is a nil rates increase, which is likely to create interest given rates is emerging as an election issue, and a common complaint about the current council. To see how justified those complaints are, I compared the rates a householder was paying immediately before the current council was elected, to what they pay now – last week in fact, when the first rates instalment was due.

I then looked at the council’s projections to see how much that same householder will be paying in three years time should all of the existing councillors and the mayor be re-elected. Here are the results. Continue reading →

Further Submission to Papakainga Plan Change (94B)

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The opportunity to make cross submissions to Papakainga Plan Change (94B) closes this Tuesday the 23rd of August.

Making a further submission allows a submitter to expand their earlier submission to include matters addressed by other submitters.

We have made a number of further submissions, one in support and five opposed.

For details of the process and to view all submissions see: http://www.wdc.govt.nz/PlansPoliciesandBylaws/Plans/DistrictPlan/DistrictPlanChanges/Pages/District-Plan-Change-94B.aspx#Expand

 

Silence from DoC and EDS

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Silence from DoC and EDS

DoC and Environmental Defense Society (EDS) have remained silent about Plan Change 94b Papakāinga developments. They have not made any submission to the plan change.

Why? If passed in its current form, the effects on the environment would be potentially very significant.

Is it that DoC and EDS believe developments by Maori for Maori do not create adverse effects? Or are they remaining silent because they don’t want to offend those they often collaborate with when opposing developments and permissive plan changes?

Submission: Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill (No 2)

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27 July 2016

Committee Secretariat
Local Government and Environment
Parliament Buildings
Wellington

Submission: Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill (No 2)

This submission is on behalf of the Landowners Coalition Inc – a non-profit organisation dedicated to the protection of private property rights.

We are generally supportive of measures that reduce the size of local government and transfer the management of essential services to Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs), which in our view are better able to manage critical infrastructure. We support the creation of CCOs for the delivery of potable water, waste water, roading, and consent processing.

It is our view that the level of competency within local government is such that it is not best able to manage complex organisations or matters requiring expertise. Continue reading →

‘Outstanding’ tag puts limits on land

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NORTHERN ADVOCATE
By Alexandra Newlove
3:30 PM Friday Jun 17, 2016

Outstanding has become a dirty word to some as Northland councils formulate rules that will restrict development on land deemed visually significant.

About 2000 property owners in Whangarei and hundreds more in Kaipara and the Far North were affected by the mapping of Outstanding Natural Landscapes and Outstanding Natural Features (ONL and ONF), under which resource consent would be needed for activities like clearing native vegetation, extending a house, building a shed and earthworks... See full article >>>>

Letterbox flyers

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Letterbox flyers

Our first distribution of flyers about Plan Change 114 Landscapes is hitting letterboxes now. We have already received a large number of requests to be added to our mailing list. Thank you to everyone who has responded.

Property politics by Frank Newman

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Property politics by Frank Newman

The general election is more than a year away but the battle lines are already forming. Two combatants, Labour and the Greens, have entered into a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to work together with the simple objective of ousting National from the treasury benches. It creates an interesting dynamic, given NZ First has repeated its view that it would not be part of a coalition that involved the Greens.

Now that Labour has stated a clear preference for the Greens, it makes a post-election coalition arrangement between Labour and NZ First less likely. NZ First also has a hard-line against working with the Maori Party (and any other party, which includes the Greens, that wants to put the Treaty of Waitangi as the core of our constitutional arrangements) so it is fast running out of dance partners; although it appears content to dance alone! The outcome of the next general election is already becoming set in stone, but more on that later.

If a Labour-Green coalition were to gain power, what would it mean for property investors?
Continue reading →

Welcome

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The Landowners Coalition is a non-profit incorporated society dedicated to the protection of property rights. We advocate on behalf of the public on matters of public interest, and on behalf of individuals when the property rights are related to private property. We are funded entirely by supporter donations. No funding is received from business interests, political parties, or government agencies. The group was established in 2013 and formalised as an incorporated society in 2014.

Papakāinga developments

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The Whangarei District Council (WDC) is going to make it easier for some landowners to develop their land.

The Papakainga Plan Change (94B) has been released for public consultation. According to the WDC, “The purpose of PC94B is to provide opportunities for Māori land owners to develop and live on their ancestral land and to develop guidelines and standards for the papakāinga development plan process.”

The council’s planning committee chairman, Greg Innes, is reported to have described the plan as “on a leading edge”. The plan change is significant because there are 868 parcels of Maori land in the Whangarei district, representing about 5% of the land area, much of it on the coast. There are some very large blocks but many small lots (the median size is 1.56 hectares).
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Continue reading →