High-rise plans have the locals steaming

The Auckland City Council is pressing ahead with high-density housing in the predominantly state housing suburb of Glen Innes, despite overwhelming opposition by locals who believe it will be a social disaster.

Deputy Mayor Bruce Hucker said fears about rising crime and social problems would not occur because the council would make sure there was good housing through strong urban design controls that would benefit the community.

He said planned three- and four-storey housing would be limited to within a 10-minute walk of the town centre to improve the shopping area and the quality of services and to help create jobs.

A claim by Tamaki College principal, David Hodge, that Glen Innes would become the "worst urban slum in New Zealand" unless fundamental issues like infrastructure were addressed first was wrong, Dr Hucker said.

"He hasn't considered the kind and quality of housing that is going to emerge as a result of these plan changes.

"The socio-economic questions that the principal raises are part and parcel of all communities.

"It [Glen Innes] is already a liveable community. It will become more liveable."

Dr Hucker was speaking after a public meeting at the Glen Innes Community Centre last night, attended by about 100 residents concerned about council plans to rezone large areas of one of the country's poorest suburbs for high-density housing.

Two-thirds of the housing in the redevelopment area is owned by Housing New Zealand.

The meeting was dominated by council officers and politicians, who kept public participation to a minimum by handing out slips of paper for people to write their questions.

This angered many people, who unsuccessfully tried to open the meeting up for greater public participation.

Tamaki ward manager Suzanne Muir said the system of using slips gave everyone an opportunity to ask questions and avoided a few people monopolising the meeting.

Laughter erupted when a member of the public yelled out: "Is the council listening to the community?"

There was also laughter after a promise by the council to fix the suburb's crumbling sewage and stormwater infrastructure was met with a story from Adriana Bader, who said the local women's toilet was damaged months ago and nothing had been done to fix it.

Green Party housing spokeswoman Sue Bradford said yesterday that she supported Housing NZ's plans to increase the number of state houses in Auckland but believed it should consider a more integrated approach.

"Rather than concentrating high-density housing projects in one area, it would be more sensible to sprinkle developments around as many suburbs as possible across the entire Auckland region."

Sue Bradford also wanted Housing New Zealand to investigate allocating state housing at big new urban developments in Auckland, such as the Mt Wellington quarry project where housing for 8000 people is to be developed.

Housing Minister Steve Maharey said Housing New Zealand would build 2400 states houses across Auckland over the next four years, not just in a few areas.

"Whilst Housing New Zealand works to spread its housing, this is more difficult in some older parts of Auckland because of historically high concentrations of state housing."

Mr Maharey said the New Zealand Housing Strategy, released last month, raised the idea of councils considering planning and zoning mechanisms to require developers to make some provision for affordable housing.