Fast-track consent boom

• By Andy Baker, Franklin Ward Councillor

The number of fast-track consent applications is booming in Auckland. Applicants either
double up and make applications at the same time they have applied for a standard resource consent or decide to go straight to the fast-track process.

The current legislation that governs things is the Fast-track Approvals Act, which came into
being in December 2024. The purpose of the Act is to facilitate the delivery of infrastructure and development projects with significant regional or national benefits. At the time of writing, there are a total of 54 applications being processed for Auckland alone, and they vary from major infrastructure to housing and development projects.

At times, it is difficult to understand how these projects meet the criteria of being of regional or national benefit, in particular, the likes of housing developments planned to take shape over decades rather than months or years.

One of the things that has long irritated me about large-scale private plan changes, resource consents and now fast-track consents has been the inability to consider the cumulative effects of proposed developments in an area on the likes of roading, water, power, schools and health.

As things stand, each application has a narrow focus for reporting on these types of things,
with individual impacts of that application considered, not what it means in the context of the total amount of development and pressure on assets, infrastructure and services. I am hoping that pending legislation changes will see greater attention on cumulative effects than exists currently.

On a completely different topic, I recently had the pleasure of joining Coastguard NZ for a
day, looking at what they do and then heading out onto the water on their 15m catamaran
“Lion Foundation Rescue”, which joined service in 2015. Like so many of our amazing
rescue-type services, Coastguard is primarily volunteer-based and reliant on fundraising.

Last year, they operated through over 13000 volunteer hours and attended 302 incidents on water, assisting 843 people.

Anyone with a boat should become a member, and anyone can support them by buying one of their lottery tickets, which is one of the major fundraising initiatives. There are magnificent prizes such as an Antarctic cruise, gold bullion, or a Haines Hunter boat. Head to www.coastguard.nz/support-the-crew/lottery to get in behind Coastguard — we are a
collection of islands after all.