That article basicly said - Some part of central or local govt spending lots of money building lots of houses on farmland.

Meanwhile in Auckland,  there is urban sprawl in the form of lifestyle blocks. In the northern parts of the North Shore. As the land is zoned rural, despite it being clay soils. And often steep in alot of places. Meaning it is not that great for farming, Yet because it is sloping it would have views. But can't be used for housing as it is got the wrong zoning. In South Auckland, some of the most fertile cropping land in the whole country is getting converted to housing. And that land is further away from the central city, and closer to the airport (more aeroplane noise). And being mostly flat, no views. But you also get drainage issues. Yet it is supposedly the best land for housing in Auckland.

As soon as you drive north of Albany on the northern motorway. You go past land that has gorse growing on it. Drive further north you reach Millwater. Then Puhoi and Warkworth. Which are expanding as people buy up in those places as they can't afford to buy or rent closer to the city. Yet due to the Northern Express bus service. That gorse has better access to public transport than most of South Auckland. And then there are the traffic problems on the Whangaparaoa peninsula.

Auckland town planning is such a mess, that saying they are a bunch of monkeys would be an insult to monkeys. And they get paid far more than peanuts anyway. As well over 50% of all money collected from rates in Auckland gets spent of staff wages. And definitely well over 1000 people who get paid more than 100K per year by the council. So the council has borrowed a stupid amount of money. And has almost reached their credit limit. If they exceed it there will be a credit rating downgrade and a massive increase in interest costs.

Is there any other country in the world, where there is privately owned farm land. Less than 1/2 an hours drive from the centre of the biggest city in that country? Excluding tiny Pacific island countries and 3rd world basket cases of course.

Also ironic that alot of the stupid Auckland council planning rules are due to a vocal group who live in the leafy suburbs around Epsom. Who vote the Act party into Parliament each election. Yet the thought of the Act parties policies applying to the council in their area. (Very minimal govt / council rules / regulations) Is their worst nightmare. Claim they are pro business and pro private property rights. But the thought of property developers moving in next door to build apartments or high density housing is hell on earth to them. They prefer to have control over what their neighbours are allowed to do with their land.

Aredwood:

 

 

 

Is there any other country in the world, where there is privately owned farm land. Less than 1/2 an hours drive from the centre of the biggest city in that country? Excluding tiny Pacific island countries and 3rd world basket cases of course.

 

I know of at least one: Norway... I know its not in your first category ;)

And in addition to farm land, theres protected forrest land that could be built on if they wanted to. Its a huge part of the protected area inside of Oslos boundaries.

Deliberately agglomerating poor people isn't a good idea, even if that's what happens by default in a laissez-faire economy.

The proposed solutions miss the elephant in the room.

Prediction - it's probably gonna get worse.

Aredwood:

 

That article basicly said - Some part of central or local govt spending lots of money building lots of houses on farmland.

 

Meanwhile in Auckland,  there is urban sprawl in the form of lifestyle blocks. In the northern parts of the North Shore. As the land is zoned rural, despite it being clay soils. And often steep in alot of places. Meaning it is not that great for farming, Yet because it is sloping it would have views. But can't be used for housing as it is got the wrong zoning. In South Auckland, some of the most fertile cropping land in the whole country is getting converted to housing. And that land is further away from the central city, and closer to the airport (more aeroplane noise). And being mostly flat, no views. But you also get drainage issues. Yet it is supposedly the best land for housing in Auckland.

 

As soon as you drive north of Albany on the northern motorway. You go past land that has gorse growing on it. Drive further north you reach Millwater. Then Puhoi and Warkworth. Which are expanding as people buy up in those places as they can't afford to buy or rent closer to the city. Yet due to the Northern Express bus service. That gorse has better access to public transport than most of South Auckland. And then there are the traffic problems on the Whangaparaoa peninsula.

 

Auckland town planning is such a mess, that saying they are a bunch of monkeys would be an insult to monkeys. And they get paid far more than peanuts anyway. As well over 50% of all money collected from rates in Auckland gets spent of staff wages. And definitely well over 1000 people who get paid more than 100K per year by the council. So the council has borrowed a stupid amount of money. And has almost reached their credit limit. If they exceed it there will be a credit rating downgrade and a massive increase in interest costs.

 

Is there any other country in the world, where there is privately owned farm land. Less than 1/2 an hours drive from the centre of the biggest city in that country? Excluding tiny Pacific island countries and 3rd world basket cases of course.

 

Also ironic that alot of the stupid Auckland council planning rules are due to a vocal group who live in the leafy suburbs around Epsom. Who vote the Act party into Parliament each election. Yet the thought of the Act parties policies applying to the council in their area. (Very minimal govt / council rules / regulations) Is their worst nightmare. Claim they are pro business and pro private property rights. But the thought of property developers moving in next door to build apartments or high density housing is hell on earth to them. They prefer to have control over what their neighbours are allowed to do with their land.

 

Certainly from my experience farmland in close proximity to large cities is eventually worth so much as housing land, it gets re-zoned and sold. A chap I was up at university with had a farm not far from Colchester in Essex, which when his great grandfather bought it, was days away from Colchester by horse. Eventually Colchester expanded to meet the farm and he sold it to a large housing developer for about NZ$2 million per acre equivalent (not bad for 150 or so acres) and retired at 44 years old.

I'd like to see something like this happen in Dairy Flat or a nearby area. Build high density near the motorway, build a new bus station, and then it links in perfectly with the existing Northern Express service.

Geektastic:

 

Certainly from my experience farmland in close proximity to large cities is eventually worth so much as housing land, it gets re-zoned and sold. A chap I was up at university with had a farm not far from Colchester in Essex, which when his great grandfather bought it, was days away from Colchester by horse. Eventually Colchester expanded to meet the farm and he sold it to a large housing developer for about NZ$2 million per acre equivalent (not bad for 150 or so acres) and retired at 44 years old.

 

Fred99:

 

Deliberately agglomerating poor people isn't a good idea

 

An excellent point..  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth,_South_Australia

Adelaide Advertiser  "new analysis of crime statistics reveal the local service area of Elizabeth, which also covers Salisbury and Blakeview, had 2805 reported cases of assaults last year - putting it ahead of Far North Queensland, Melbourne and Brisbane as the nation's fourth most violent location."

And wait until the Holden factory there closes down this year.... :/

jarledb:

 

Aredwood:

 

Is there any other country in the world, where there is privately owned farm land. Less than 1/2 an hours drive from the centre of the biggest city in that country? Excluding tiny Pacific island countries and 3rd world basket cases of course.

 

 

I know of at least one: Norway... I know its not in your first category ;)

 

Hmmm... come to think of it, back in 1985 I lived in a town called Uster. Google maps says this is 20 minutes drive from Zurich, largest city in Switzerland. And there was plenty of farming going on around Uster. Dunno for sure whether it was privately owned, but I'd guess so. Google Maps satellite view shows that there's still plenty of farms in the area, and many a whole lot closer to Zurich.

Geektastic: Maybe we could try this sort of thing to get more houses done...

New garden towns and villages to provide 200,000 homes to ease housing shortage

gzt:

Geektastic: Maybe we could try this sort of thing to get more houses done...

 

New garden towns and villages to provide 200,000 homes to ease housing shortage

 

BBC has a summary naming the areas and funding level:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38486907

Govt funding is around £8m. That indicates planning funding, and maybe design funding.

It's not clear to me why they are called garden cities. Do they have town plans already? maybe that's 90% marketing.

It looks somewhat equivalent to our Special Housing Area's thing.

Garden Cities already exist - Welwyn in Hertfordshire, for example.

"Garden cities were intended to be planned, self-contained communities surrounded by "greenbelts", containing proportionate areas of residences, industry, and agriculture."

A number have been created out of near-greenfield sites, where sometimes a small village existed already but sometimes nothing. There is an entirely new village a few miles outside Cambridge, near Caxton Gibbet, called Cambourne. There is a brief outline of the place and how it was created here

MikeB4: I see two issues with this.....

1. Who funds it? Does it come from central government taxes or local government rates? Either would need substantial increases to fund.

2. Very care planning needs to be done to ensure that infrastructure meets the need and all services like shopping, schools, medical and social are present or we wiould end up with a series of nightmares, eg Flaxmere and Wainuiomata.

MikeB4: I see two issues with this.....

1. Who funds it? Does it come from central government taxes or local government rates? Either would need substantial increases to fund.

2. Very care planning needs to be done to ensure that infrastructure meets the need and all services like shopping, schools, medical and social are present or we wiould end up with a series of nightmares, eg Flaxmere and Wainuiomata.

Rikkitic:

MikeB4: I see two issues with this.....

1. Who funds it? Does it come from central government taxes or local government rates? Either would need substantial increases to fund.

2. Very care planning needs to be done to ensure that infrastructure meets the need and all services like shopping, schools, medical and social are present or we wiould end up with a series of nightmares, eg Flaxmere and Wainuiomata.

Flaxmere is not a nightmare. You are just parroting media repeaters.

MikeB4: 2. Very care planning needs to be done to ensure that infrastructure meets the need and all services like shopping, schools, medical and social are present or we wiould end up with a series of nightmares, eg Flaxmere and Wainuiomata.

When I lived in Wainuiomata it wasn't a nightmare... certainly better than several Lower Hutt suburbs (otherwise I wouldn't have lived there, obviously).