Appendix 3.4.2

BEFORE THE ENVIRONMENT COURT ENV-2007-304-000472 IN THE MATTER of the Resource Management Act 1991 AND IN THE MATTER of appeals under clause 14 of Schedule 1 of the Act BETWEEN PROGRESSIVE ENTERPRISES LIMITED (ENV-2007-AKL-0000574) AND WESTFIELD (NEW ZEALAND) LIMITED (ENV-2007-AKL-0000580) AND THE NATIONAL TRADING COMPANY OF NEW ZEALAND (ENV-2007-AKL-0000611) AND THE WAREHOUSE LTD (ENV-2007-AKL-000661) AND SYLVIA PARK BUSINESS CENTRE LIMITED (ENV-2007-AKL-000544) AND FEDERATED FARMERS OF NZ INC (ENV-2007-AKL-000659) AND WAITAKERE CITY COUNCIL (ENV-2007-AKL-000632) AND MANUKAU CITY COUNCIL (ENV-2007-AKL-000679) Appellants AND AUCKLAND REGIONAL COUNCIL Respondent ___________________________________________________________________ Evidence of John Mackay On behalf of the Auckland Regional Council ___________________________________________________________________ Statement of Evidence of John Mackay 28 August 2009 BM A08341_001_JMK_20090805 Page 1 1.0 Introduction 1.1. My name is John Mackay. I am a principal of Boffa Miskell Limited – an environmental consultancy of planners, urban designers, landscape architects and ecologists. 1.2. I hold the qualifications of Bachelor of Architecture and Diploma of Town Planning, both from the University of Auckland. I am a registered member of the New Zealand Planning Institute. 1.3. Since completing my qualifications, I have worked in a variety of roles, mainly in the public sector, doing work ranging from district plan development and master-planning to specific urban design and streetscape projects projects. These roles have often fallen in the area between architecture and planning, which has latterly become known as urban design. 1.4. I joined Boffa Miskell as an urban design specialist two and a half years ago, and have since been involved in some forty projects, including the Te Atatu Corridor Redevelopment Potential Study, Nelson Urban Growth Study, Orakei TOD Master-planning, Hobsonville Village Urban Design Options, Onehunga Development Framework and the Taupo Business Zone Structure Planning. 1.5. Of particular relevance to this hearing, I have been involved in the ongoing work to try to effectively implement the Regional Growth Strategy through the LGAAA. 1.6. In 2004 I was the Urban and Economic Strategy Manager at Waitakere City Council. As part of this role I was responsible for Waitakere’s Growth Management Strategy and was the programme manager for the Growth and Transport Integration Project, which initiated the six plan changes that Waitakere City notified under the LGAAA. I gave evidence to the joint regional hearings panel on three occasions. 1.7. After joining Boffa Miskell I was commissioned by the ARC to help facilitate the Regional Classification Project and lead the Centres Specialist Group within the project. 1.8. The following year I was commissioned as one of four “critical friends,” who helped the ARC facilitate a series of workshops to progress the Futures Statement of Evidence of John Mackay 28 August 2009 BM A08341_001_JMK_20090805 Page 2 Planning Project. The project was aimed at modelling and reaching agreement on future urban form and transport infrastructure to accommodate the predicted million more people in Auckland by 2050, and to drive the reviews of the Regional Land Transport Strategy and Regional Growth Strategy. 1.9. The role of the critical friends was to ask provocative but constructive questions, to independently critique options as they were developed and modelled, and to contribute alternative ideas. We also helped present the emerging options to executive and political committees 1.10. It may also be relevant that I have lived in both suburban houses and CBD apartments, and have experienced commuting on foot (Wellington and Auckland), by bike (Christchurch and London), train (Paekakariki, London and Henderson), bus (Christchurch and Auckland), and car (Henderson and Takapuna). 1.11. I have prepared my evidence in compliance with the Code of Conduct of Expert Witnesses in the Environment Court Consolidated Practice Note (2006). I confirm that my evidence is within my area of expertise, except where I state a reliance on the assessment of another person. I have not omitted to consider material facts known to me that might alter or detract from my analysis or conclusions I express. 1.12. My evidence will focus firstly on the nature of successful centres, the benefits of such centres– environmental, economic and social – and the role of good urban structure and of retail activities in contributing to their amenity. It will then turn to the nature of corridors, their role in the Regional Growth Strategy, and their limitations in achieving similar benefits to centres. Statement of Evidence of John Mackay 28 August 2009 BM A08341_001_JMK_20090805 Page 3 2.0 The Role of Amenity and Urban Design in the RMA and LGAAA 2.1. Section 7(c) of the Resource Management Act1991 (RMA) requires “particular regard to….the maintenance and enhancement of amenity values.” Amenity values are defined as: “those natural or physical qualities and characteristics of an area that contribute to people’s appreciation of its pleasantness, aesthetic coherence, and cultural and recreational attributes:” 2.2. A purpose of the LGAAA (section 3(b)) is: “to require Auckland local authorities to change the policy statement and plans prepared under the Resource Management Act 1991 to integrate the land transport and land use provisions and make those provisions consistent with the Auckland Regional Growth Strategy.” 2.3. The changes to the planning documents are for the purpose of contributing to the matters set out in Schedule 5, as follows: (a) “providing increased certainty in the assessment of resource consents, designations, and plan changes related to transport and urban form, and ensuring that transport and land use patterns are aligned to achieve sustainability, efficiency, and liveability in the Auckland Region"; and (b) “managing transport and transport infrastructure, facilitating a multimodal transport network, and facilitating integrated transport management"; and (c) “reducing adverse effects of transport on the environment (including improving air and water quality, reducing noise and stormwater, improving heritage protection and reducing community disruption and transport land use), and reducing the adverse effects and increasing the positive interactions of transport and land use"; and (d) “supporting compact sustainable urban form and sustainable urban land use intensification (including location, timing and sequencing issues, and associated quality, character, and values of urban form and design)"; Statement of Evidence of John Mackay 28 August 2009 BM A08341_001_JMK_20090805 Page 4 (e) “integrating transport and land use policies to reinforce metropolitan urban and rural objectives of the Auckland Regional Policy Statement, the development of a competitive and efficient economy and a high quality of life, underpinned by a quality environment and amenity." 2.4. It will be noted that the LGAAA went well beyond the RMA in authorising a directive approach to urban form. Urban design deals with amenity and sustainable management at different scales, and it is the larger scale of metropolitan urban structure that much of my evidence is focussed on. 3.0 The Role of Centres in the Regional Growth Strategy 3.1. In its first century Auckland was settled mainly within the isthmus with small independent villages beyond the isthmus. After the Second World War, Auckland’s population boomed. The building of the Harbour Bridge, motorways and other connections opened up areas beyond the isthmus which developed into dormitory suburbs. 3.2. The suburbanisation of Auckland is often described as the market at work, and a response to what people wanted. In reality it was strongly dictated by planning policies that insisted that dwellings could only be in residential zones on quarter-acre sections, by subsidised Government mortgages that could only be used for detached suburban houses, and by the building of roads subsidised out of property rates. 3.3. In the late 1990s the eight councils of the Auckland Region worked together through a series of workshops and meetings to arrive at an agreed Regional Growth Strategy. The primary driver was a rapidly expanding population, and the prospect of Auckland doubling to a population of 2 million in the first half of this century. (After the first 10 of these 50 years the actual population growth has been ahead of forecast). 3.4. To prevent further sprawl over the rural hinterland, the Regional Growth Strategy sought to accommodate three-quarters of the population growth within the existing urban area, as defined by the metropolitan urban limit. Most of this residential intensification was to be in centres and corridors. Statement of Evidence of John Mackay 28 August 2009 BM A08341_001_JMK_20090805 Page 5 3.5. Past experience with infill intensification of suburban areas like Mt Eden, Mt Albert and Epsom had demonstrated that infill housing (sausage flats, townhouses, etc) could easily degrade the amenity of a suburban environment. A more sustainable approach, and one that offered more variety and choice of lifestyle, was to intensify in centres and major public transport corridors. 3.6. The Growth Concept 2050 map (Attachment 1 - Auckland Regional Growth Strategy - ARC 1999, pages 34-35) showed some 42 town centres earmarked for intensification, though the representation, reflecting the voluntary nature of the exercise, was patchy. Manukau

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