URGENT - YOU MUST Make a submission on the (disasterous for Johnsonville!) WCC Spatial plan by Monday 5 Oct. !

Graeme Sawyer from JCA - Johnsonville Community Association Inc

Hi All,
Today submissions close for WCCs Draft "Spatial Plan" Consultation. JCA is Johnsonville's "Watchdog" on such WCC planning issues, and believe us when we tell you this one is REALLY bad for Johnsonville!! ("MDRA" intensification in 2012 was bad - this is, quite literally, twenty times worse!). Imagine a J/ville where all housing from Safari Cres in the West, to Chapman St in the east was legally entitled to build up to 6 stories tall (the purple shaded area in the attached image), with the very centre of that area (shaded yellow in image) allowing for 8 stories tall. Incredible as it seems, that's what WCC is pushing here - Just imagine what your home will be like when these high rises go up around you!!

To stop the worst effects of these proposals on our beloved Johnsonville community, we need LOTS of concerned Johnsonville citizens (this means YOU) to spend some time & make individual submissions to WCC. If you haven't done so, Bad news - time is nearly up and all this detail will take you a long while to understand...let alone comment on...

But HELP IS AT HAND. We've written a draft template suitable for YOU to add your name to as an "individual submitter". The Doc is attached (or can be found at the JCA site - link attached). Just download the template, add your personal details, save the file as "your Name" and email the doc to WCC. Done! ( ... - in less than 10 minutes)

The "best" brains in the suburb on such matters have compiled a really easy template with the "right" answers filled in, and appropriate detailed comments where necessary, - a draft "individual submission" for you to quickly complete (or ammend as you see fit, and send in the edit). Just download the attached Docx file, or follow the link below to download it from the JCA website.

PLEASE spend the time and do this!!!!!

If you cannot do this TODAY, then please email WCC at planningforgrowth@wcc.govt.nz and ask them for a 1 week extension for your individual submission to the spatial plan. This will give you a few more days if you need that....

Please pass this message on to EVERYONE you know in Johnsonville, and ask them to do the same - this is REALLY important!

Kind Regards
Graeme Sawyer,
Johnsonville Community Association. .


PS - here is my "straight up" summary of the "problems" the spatial plan presents for Johnsonville. The plan switches WCCs focus from sharing the burden of residential growth evenly across the city, to shoe-horning way-too-much of it into a few suburbs, (particularly J/ville!) , whose infrastructure - three waters, traffic, schools and parks, etc - are already way beyond "capacity"....
WCC has lined us up for 8 stories high residential intensification for all over central J/ville , and 6 stories right around & up Cortina Ave., and right up the hill to Chapman St (!!!) This proposes a MUCH larger zone for intensification than our existing MDRA (high density) zone, and includes poorly accessible and pedestrian unsafe areas that JCA had the Environment court throw out of the MDRA zone in 2012 (!!)
Meanwhile most of the likes of Thorndon, Kelburn, Mt Cook etc - the places which SHOULD have LOTS of hi-density because close-to-the-city is the most efficient place for them - escape their "fare share" of intensification, due to protection of their "Character values" !!!! (we say "rubbish" to that!)
Rich leafy suburbs like Karori and Khandallah and others like Tawa (which are much more suitable for intensification) - get off waaaay lighter than they should while J/ville gets way more (Why? POLITICAL reasons probably....- they have councilors, "ours" live 8 km. away!).

WE (JCA) KNOW -by bitter experience- that this early consultation phase is the best opportunity to make a difference to such WCC plan changes - Strike hard, strike early, and prevent a protracted (and unwinnable!) battle...

Individual Submission Template - for WCC's Our City Tomorrow Spatial Plan - Oct 2020 docx.docx Download View