Citizens and Ratepayers has announced more than half of its candidates for seats on the region-wide Auckland Council.

Citizens and Ratepayers has largely been a central Auckland group with National Party connections, but believes the the brand will work across the entire region in the election to be held in October.

Albany Ward
Linda Cooper, Waitakere City Councillor
Josephine Kim, lawyer

Albert-Eden-Roskill
Christine Fletcher, former Auckland mayor
Paul Goldsmith, Auckland City Councillor

Franklin
Des Morrison, Franklin District Councillor

Maungakiekie-Tamaki
Alfred Ngaro, community worker

Orakei
Doug Armstrong, Auckland City Councillor

Te Irirangi (Howick)
Dick Quax, Olympian
Jami-Lee Ross, pilot and Manukau City Councillor

Waitemata and Gulf
Michael Barnett, Auckland Chamber of Commerce head and ARC councillor

Whau
Noelene Raffills, Auckland City Councillor

The C&R will announce the other nine candidates as the election draws nearer. Labour and the City Vision ticket are still accepting nominations.

Shaping Our Places will be contacting each of the candidates for the Auckland election for their views on urban design.

David Roberts has taken it into his own hands and thought up ways to make his neighborhood more “walkable, sociable, sustainable, and safe”. He came up with a list of suggestions (as shown on the map) that would make it easier for people to get to parks and public spaces, easier to meet neighbors, walk or bike to stores, etc.

Yes it is an American example, but maybe it is something more of us should do. Many people sit and gripe about the way their community is set up, and have many genius ideas about what should be where. Why don’t we start being a bit more pro-active and start drawing up plans of our own?

Why do our district councils make it so difficult to find out information about the plans for our communities? Most of the Long Term Council Community Plan’s (LTCCP) are hundreds of pages of waffling, trying to sell an idea of how wonderful our cities and towns are, and they leave the important information in the background: where our places are heading. We know how great our cities and towns are. We wouldn’t choose to live there if we didn’t. How many of us have the time these days to sift through this seemingly endless amount of babble to find out the real facts?

This week we have the second instalment in the profiling of the LTCCP’s. Nelson City’s LTCCP, otherwise known as the ‘Nelson Community Plan’, doesn’t explicitly mention its urban design plans, it more sets out its financial contributions to the city’s development. It does mention the central city development on page 32.

All is not lost though. The city’s urban design plans are laid out in more detail in their Heart of Nelson Central City Strategy, and also their 2010/11 draft Annual Plan. Other related documents include the Nelson Urban Growth Strategy (NUGS) and intensification study both of which are both available on the city councils website.

As well as mentioning urban design and development in the Community Plan and Annual Plan, the council has set up an urban design panel and an Iwi urban design advisory panel and has a series of Resource Management Plan changes proposed to deliver better urban design around the city.

The Nelson Community Plan is available free of charge on request, although to save on resources it is preferable to access it directly through the council website. It is also available on disc.

Urbanist Tommy Honey discusses the pros and cons of owning and using electric vehicles on Radio New Zealand’s Nine to Noon show with Kathryn Ryan.

He comments on Wellington’s possible plans for installing ‘parking stations’ for the ability to recharge your vehicle while you shop.

How would this change the look and possible infrastructure of our cities and towns? What are the logistics of supplying energy to the users and the impact it could have on our country’s energy rescources?

Urbanist Tommy Honey – Tommy Honey looks at the future of electric vehicles – duration 10.03mins

Video from www.betterplace.com discussing the pros of owning a electric vehicle (mentioned in Tommy Honey’s segment):

In the lead up to the local council elections coming up in October, Shaping Our Places will be searching out your districts long term plans. Amazingly, yes, they do plan for the future, and even include a thought for urban planning. We hope this will give you some interesting reading material over the months and make you think about whether the vision is up to par.

We start with the Wellington City Councils 2009-19 plans. Their aim is to have ‘a compact, vibrant, attractive city’ with their long term approach to urban development.

They have a strong focus on urban development and transport, and have recognised the importance of good urban design, ‘Urban design will contribute to economic development through good transport linkages and a flexible approach to land use planning”.

The plan also recognises that Wellington has built its reputation on being a vibrant city with well connected and attractive streets and is known as the cultural centre of New Zealand. It states that this is a combination of landscape and urban design.

Click here for a link to the Wellington City Council ‘Long-Term Council Community Plan 2009-19’. Or if you are based in Wellington, the council offices have copies available for you at no cost.