Auckland City Council - City Scene

Developers will pay for more of the flow-on effects of their developments from next Monday, when the Isthmus Section of the Auckland City District Plan becomes operative. Under new rules that apply from November 15, developers might be required to contribute to anything from the cost of a new seat on a nearby walkway, to better footpaths in the local shopping centre, to drainage improvements or additional carparking or the purchase of new land for parks.

Chairperson of the Council's Planning Committee, Councillor Juliet Yates, says councils were given the ability to take financial contributions on certain types of development by the Resource Management Act, which is now nearly 10 years old.

"However, the rules could not be applied until the District Plan became operative." She says the new rules replace the 'reserve contributions' required under the Local Government Act and which could only be used to provide or improve parks and reserves.

"The advantage of the new financial contributions is that they can be used to deal with a range of issues resulting from development.

"Also, they can be applied whether the adverse effects of the development are on the development site, in the local community or across the city. They will be an extremely valuable tool to protect Auckland City as a wonderful place to live and visit as the city's population continues to grow."

The new plan (under the Resource Management Act 1991) allows the council to collect financial contributions in a number of ways and for:-

Open Space, Business Development (Business 2 and 3), Infrastructure, Environmental and Heritage and Parking.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>