Mike's Minute: The housing developments and fast-track conundrum
We can end the week by adding another example of angst and anger to the fast-track pile.
We have talked about Delmore and their 1200 houses north of Auckland, as well as Pegasus and their 1000 homes north of Christchurch.
The fast-track application was lodged this week, and now we have Ridgeburn in Arrowtown; 1200 more houses and this week, a hall full of ropeable locals.
Now, the question for fast-track becomes increasingly political. It's that interface between doing what's right and fixing a problem.
There is no doubt that the RMA, which is what fast-track is addressing, is broken. It's slow, it's expensive, it's wasteful, and it's holding us back.
Some mining will get done because of fast-track. That is jobs and incomes in areas that need it.
Tauranga Port might (they haven't got it yet) be able to extricate themselves from the quagmire of nonsense they have had to deal with now for literally years.
But for every project that looks like it fixes something, we have a growing number of what looks like good old-fashioned housing developments, and it is those that might cause untold misery for the Government.
It may well be a compounding problem because once you green light a Delmore, you have to green light a Pegasus, and then a Ridgeburn. They are all 1000ish houses in a country that apparently wants more houses.
Yet in doing that you have thousands of angry voters who may not forgive you for wrecking their little piece of paradise.
And if you recognise that political danger you then run the risk of the political trap, which is to try and sooth some people.
Furrowed brows with some good old-fashioned compromise and once you do that it’s a Pandora's box of ebb and flow, give and take, compromise and legal action.
Before you know it, you're back where you started with 900 pages of laborious, go-nowhere RMA law.
The easy answer is to stay the course, have the courage of your convictions and believe that in the long term they will all thank you.
But it's election year.
Who is for turning and who is for taking the risk, that this doesn't turn into a voter rebellion and an election bloodbath.
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