Planning What Matters

Last week a council arborist suggested we lower our aspirations for 30% tree canopy in Waitemata and limit this figure to 30% in our parks and street corridors where there are berms.

Planting trees in the city centre costs anywhere between $20-70k because of the complexities of avoiding utilities and the cost of traffic management plans to get them in. You can get in hundreds of young trees into parks or berms for that price. But it is in the city where people particularly want trees & green space to counteract the pressures of high density living, mitigate the heat island effect and support biodiversity.

The Waitemata Local Board has long been a step ahead on climate change action and it was the first in Auckland to develop an urban ngahere (forest) strategy with aspirations to meet 30% tree canopy cover by 2050. We are currently sitting at 19%.

Reaching this aspiration is challenging but the thought of a city with few trees where the majority of our residents live - City Centre, Karangahape Road, Eden Terrace/Uptown - is bleak. Ponsonby which feels green has narrow pavements on its residential streets, without the frontyard landscaping rules the sense of amenity and greenspace would diminish radically.

I have asked staff to look into what financial incentives, services (like trimming notable and mature native trees for free), collaborations with developers or changes to the AUP could make a difference. I have asked about alternatives to trees in the street like structures with climbers, green walls, green roofs and balconies. Trees and greenery cool the city, provide shade, amenity and support public health and community wellbeing. What ends up in Plan Change 120 will make a difference.

Changes to legislation around Plan Change 120 are going through urgency today. Next month the board will be making its recommendations. We’ll be exploring how to ensure sufficient greenspace before we make our submission.

Till now, the public discourse around the principles of reducing capacity have been about numbers, heights, distance, not about greenspace for trees, for recreation and wellbeing but behind the numbers is genuine concern around loss of trees and amenity. New developments on average remove 95% of landscaping. What is planted afterwards is significantly less than what there was before.

Surely we can do better. Up not out should apply within the city so there is usable contiguous greenspace with room for trees and biodiversity. We need to focus on what matters.