Council refuses to release the commissioners report on District Plan Change 72

Wellington City Council Commissioners for District Plan Change 72 have signed off on their report, which is expected to doom a popular northern Wellington suburb to a future of high density, low rent housing, and herald the destruction in over $ 200 million in property values.

Council is expected to rubber-stamp the report next week, but whether or not its contents reflect the massive popular opposition to Johnsonville becoming a “high-density only” housing zone, is being withheld from the public at a critical stage of the electoral cycle. After initially promising to release the report to the public today, it is understood that council officials have closed ranks to keep the report secret until after nominations for forthcoming Wellington City Council elections close at noon this Friday.

"The Council has cynically withheld the report to help save the hides of three incumbent Northern Ward councilors from the fallout. A huge community backlash will erupt when the report findings are made public" says Graeme Sawyer, Spokesperson for the Johnsonville Progressive Associations.

"The release of the commissioners report after 12 Noon Friday 20 August has passed, is designed to allowing our current cohort of Northern Ward councilors a reprieve from public scrutiny while the deadline for nominations for upcoming council elections is allowed to quietly lapse”

ENDS

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