Auckland property owners stripped of thousands of dollars to undertake cultural impact assessments should be refunded by the Council.

The High Court decision to dismiss the IMSB's appeal of the Council's decision to remove the remaining ‘Sites and Places of Value to Mana Whenua’ (read more here), confirmed that the Council has inflicted additional costs and uncertainty on Auckland property owners through these cultural impact assessments with little or no justification since they were first introduced in September 2013.

Earlier this week we received Justice Wylie's decision dismissing the High Court appeal by the Independent Maori Statutory Board against the decision made by Auckland Councillors to accept the Independent Hearings Panel’s recommendation to remove the ‘Sites and Places of value to Mana Whenua’ overlay from the Auckland Unitary Plan. 

Read the ruling here.

We are applauding the recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel to delete Cultural Impact Assessment requirements, and the scheduled “sites of value” from the Auckland Unitary Plan.

The Panel clearly recognises the folly of adopting such a flawed system, a system which was in danger of undermining public support for sites of significant historical and cultural heritage.

Thank you to all of our supporters, and those who have worked tirelessly to oppose these proposals. We are pleased to see that commonsense has prevailed.

The Democracy Action team have been busy preparing and presenting their submissions against the the Mana Whenua provisions within the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan.

The documents below should serve as a great resource for people interested in learning more about the implications for Aucklanders of the Mana Whenua provisions, and why they should be opposed.

ID#3172, Waiuku

The mana whenua provisions don’t just affect sites in downtown Auckland.

One of our eagle-eyed volunteers has tracked down ID#3172, which is right in the middle of a new housing development.

Our volunteer documents: 

ID#205, East Tamaki

Our volunteer documents:

“The site is on top of the hill that is the former Greenmount municipal landfill that is being remediated by Auckland Council and will become a park with sweeping views. The area is a huge 54ha, bounded by Harris, Smales and Springs Rds.

ID#2028, Mount Eden

The mana whenua provisions don’t just affect homes and businesses, but also community sports groups.

One of our volunteers took the time to track down site #2028, which is nestled somewhere on, in or below the Auckland Table Tennis Association building in the Withiel Thomas Park, as the map shows.

Below is a map of a number of sites that Democracy Action's army of volunteers have been busy documenting.

Sites with red markers have been completed, whereas green markers indicate that they are free to investigate.

If you would like to join our ranks of volunteers to assist Democracy Action with the documenting of these sites, or have another skill that can help us with this campaign, please click here.

Democracy Action has written to Mayor Len Brown and all Councillors to highlight the need for action on the radical Mana Whenua provisions in the PAUP.

Our letter to the Mayor outlines how the Mana Whenua provisions has had the effect of being a unilateral decree, and that property valuers believe that the imposed provisions will likely affect property values.

You can view our letter to the Mayor and Councillors below

The team have made several submissions throughout the PAUP Hearing process.

The submissions convey our objections to the mana whenua provisions and outline why we think the radical provisions should be taken out of the PAUP.

Please click on the links to read each submission.