"Five years. 23 independent experts and over 34,000 contributions."
This week you may have started to see and hear messages like this on posters, radio, bus stops and social media as part of an Auckland Council campaign highlighting the importance of the need for a comprehensive plan for Auckland in the lead-up to council's decisions on the Unitary Plan.
The Independent Hearings Panel will provide its recommendations to the council on any changes it thinks should be made to the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan on 22 July.
Once received the council will make their decisions based on these recommendations to decide the Auckland Unitary Plan by 19 August 2016.
It's a hugely significant milestone for Auckland, it's the largest planning exercise in New Zealand history, and will provide one plan to replace the 13 previous District Plans of the former councils - many which are 10 years out of date.
We've all heard the facts about Auckland's rapid growth, and how it's affecting traffic congestion, infrastructure and of course, housing. The Unitary Plan is critical to our future success as a city and helping to solve these issues.
Check out our website that details our plans for Auckland.
Also in the NZ Herald
We have also partnered up with NZME to highlight the results of a piece of qualitative research we have done on housing, which you may have seen in today’s Herald.
This research helps us understand why people hold certain views on housing in Auckland, as well as highlighting some of the issues Aucklanders’ face and what they want from a home here.
Today’s story is the first in a series that will examine the research and some of the findings from it.
Cost
The cost of the campaign is $372,000 from within our existing budget.
Get ready
So, look out for this campaign as we get ready to finalise the Auckland Unitary Plan.
This campaign will help raise awareness of the necessity to have a well-designed, well-planned city - a city that needs to maintain our heritage as well as look after our environment. In short, all the ingredients needed to help Auckland continue to grow into a world-class city.
