This campaign is to encourage YOU to realise how you will be affected, and to encourage you to make a submission to DPC 72 and help stop Johnsonville becoming a Ghetto. You have only until 27 November to make your opinion heard, or the suburb we love will gradually be obliterated, and replaced by a freakish experiment in social engineering.
DPC 72 is an “omnibus” amendment to the Wellington District Plan, which covers a raft of changes in many areas. Because the plan change is so large and wide-ranging, the “detail” of the colossal changes DPC72’s implementation will make to Johnsonville have been overlooked by most residents – that’s why the council has not been inundated with outraged citizens – yet!
Most critically, for Johnsonville, in DPC72 is the proposed “Area of Change for Johnsonville & Kilburnie. This will affect Johnsonville residents & ratepayers in many ways, and will utterly change the face of the suburb over the coming 20 years.  Homeowners will have their “fundamental” rights over their property and environment severely restricted. Central Johnsonville area will become a concrete jungle that none of us want to drive or walk through, let alone live in.

Area of Change = Ghetto Zone Johnsonville !!

What difference will it make to Johnsonville homeowners and residents if the “area of change” WCC proposal is passed? – 5 good reasons to Act Now!

1/  Residential Intensification; Lots more neighbors in less space.
The “area of change” proposal will open the way for “medium density” housing in Johnsonville – “medium density” sounds quite moderate & benign – but only if you compare it to downtown Manhattan!
By NZ suburban standards, this change will fill central Johnsonville with very high density residences and effectively prohibit the construction of the type of dwellings that now exist here. For anyone who does not wish to live in a “council flat” or apartment (and be surrounded by many hundreds of other such dwellings) this will become a nightmare – but after 27 November – if you do nothing – it will become your reality!
If DPC 72 goes ahead, the population of the suburb will increase by up to 3000 people within existing central Johnsonville residential housing area – a few hundred metres around the town centre. If the council passes this change now, it will be the “thin end of the wedge” – councils own documents refer to the “seeding” of higher density housing – which means that there is a clear intention that the “Ghetto zone” will be made larger and larger over years to come.
How “intense” will the housing density be? Council Reports say that “residential dwelling density of at least 40 dwellings per hectare would be appropriate for a centre the size of Johnsonville. The current dwelling density of the Johnsonville area of change is approximately 12 dwellings per hectare”. That means that if this goes ahead, where there are now three dwellings, in the future there will be 10 !.

2/ Out with suburbia, in with the ghetto
That will mean the relaxed suburban look & feel of our suburb will give way to high-rise blocks, with greater (up to 50%) site coverage and zero minimum open space for each section. “standard” maximum height will be 10 metres – and depending on building design that could easily be 4 storeys or higher!! The impact on private gardens & established trees will be huge.
Council staff agree that the success or failure of the “area of change” proposal depends on “retaining high design and construction standards while keeping construction costs down”. Excuse me? That means having your cake & eating it too. Last time we checked, doing both was a virtual impossibility– (especially when you rely on private developers to build this utopian dream on a shoestring budget and make a profit).

3/ More people = Less services
Huge additional pressure on infrastructure will develop with no guarantee of more & better services to match. Recent surveys of Johnsonville residents showed over 70% felt northern suburbs were poorly served by WCC and its councillors. They see Northern suburbs – the biggest contributors to their rate take by population – as a revenue stream to be used and abused. Local schools & amenities in Johnsonville are already bursting at the seams! Johnsonville roads are 20 years overdue for major upgrades, and recent council prioritization means that they won’t yet happen for another 18 years – (unless they can blackmail private business developers to “make a contribution!).
Council claims that Johnsonville is perfect for higher density housing because of our “wonderful infrastructure!” (Like the roads only 50m. away from the proposed Ghetto Zone – such as Prospect Terrace – that still have no footpaths!).
Based on past performance, WCC simply cannot be trusted to increase services in proportion to the growth that will come from the “Ghetto Zone” proposal. If it goes ahead, we Johnsonville residents will become rats in a cage……unless you help stop it now.

4/ Your rights as a homeowner will be severely compromised.
If you own a property within the area of change, your rights to make changes to your own property will be severely restricted, and the playing field will be biased towards developers. It sounds unbelievable, but it’s true! If you live in the Ghetto Zone, redevelopments MUST be on sections that cover at least 1000 or even 1500 square metres – that’s two or even three or four existing “typical sized” sections. This means that if you are not a professional developer (and unless you can afford to buy up your neighbors properties sites and spend millions on building 3 or 4 storey flats or apartments on the site), your current rights to build on your own land will be taken away from you! (You may be allowed to re-build a single dwelling on your section – but when you are surrounded by monolithic flats & apartments, you wont want to!)
Does this mean my land will suddenly be more valuable? If you thought that means your property values will suddenly skyrocket, think again! This loss of utility means that your property values will most likely drop in the short to medium term! And meanwhile, the concrete jungle will sprout up all around you! In the end, the only ones to “profit” from this will likely be ( you guessed it!) – property developers!.

5/ Your right to protect your environment from interference by your neighbor will be lost
Right now, WCC regulations under the RMA prevent your neighbours activities & buildings impacting on your enjoyment of your section. IF DPC72 “Johnsonville Ghetto Zone” proposal goes through, that will all change. Your neighbour will be entitled to build up to 3 or 4 storeys high virtually on your boundary – and you need not even be notified of their consent application!
The plan change amend “sunlight access plane” provisions in a way to complex to detail here. But what really matters to you is that if a developer applies for a consent that exceeds the new regulations (higher than 10m dwelling or intruding too far on your sunlight access), YOU WILL NOT EVEN BE NOTIFIED of their application if the council deems the effect on you to be “insignificant” ( Our suburb already has a myriad of examples of how such “discretionary exemptions” have destroyed peoples view, sun, and enjoyment of their properties).  The first you will know about it could be their 3 or 4 storey wall going up next door right where your view used to be, and you will be utterly powerless to stop it!!

Why are they doing this to us?

The councils Underlying Philosophy for the ” Ghetto Zone Proposal” is that they are attempting to plan for growth by increasing the density of housing, rather than allowing “urban sprawl”. This is generally a sound practice when this higher density housing occurs close to central services, or where existing areas have no character or are in line for redevelopment (London’s “docklands”), or when its a “Greenfield’s” site. But doing this 10 Km. (and a slow train ride) away from central Wellington is insanity. Areas like Thorndon are within a short walk from the CBD, employers and facilities, yet council dare not make that an “Area of change”, because people with wealth & influence live there! (and the local councillors for that ward have succeeded in helping their residents fight to preserve their suburb – in stark contrast to most of our Northern councillors!).
In allowing the “Area of Change”, council are clearly stating that they think Johnsonville has no character worth saving, and that it should be gradually wiped out.
Why Johnsonville? When several other “areas of change were floated in 2008, almost all the other outer suburb that were to be affected (Tawa, Lyall Bay, etc) – with the exception of Johnsonville – created such a huge objection that WCC quickly shelved plans to make those other areas “areas of change”. Essentially, Johnsonville is about to have this imposed on them by WCC because Johnsonvillians have been apathetic, – and because consultation has failed to inform residents of what the impact on their lives will actually be. WCC think we will simply sit back & do nothing while they take away our basic property rights and stuff up our suburb forever.
Whether they can do this or not is, quite literally, up to you. Together, we think its time to make a stand – The process is already well underway, and this is our last chance to stop it.!
What about our local councillors?
Good Question. We have not been impressed by the support from most of the current representatives from the Northern Ward. We asked them to use their influence to help us get us a 6 month extension to the consultation date from WCC so we could get proper feedback from residents on the Plan change – not to change the proposal, even, but just to give people like you, dear reader, time to consider the impact & make a submission. But two Northern Ward Councillors have bowed to the council officers who claim that re-notifying Wellington Ratepayers of a change to the consultation closing date will be “too expensive” to justify (What price democracy??). Those two are simply happy to have Johnsonville sacrificed for fear of wasting a few thousand dollars to advise all ratepayers of a change to the closing date for consultation!. Where is our representation??
The only reason they are refusing our request to extend consultation is that they are counting on us not being able to organise a resistance to this diabolical change to the future of Johnsonville.
We say that the inclusion of the “Ghetto Zone” proposal in a larger DPC 72 (and the superficial “attempt” at consultation on it by WCC) shows that two of your three Northern Ward Councillors are not listening to their constituents feelings, and are prepared to see the Johnsonville environment we love sacrificed. Most Mayorral candidates are in the same boat.  It’s not good enough, and councillors will be held to account over their ultimate performance on this issue by their constituents.
The councillors themselves, refuse to commit to either supporting or opposing the proposed changes to Johnsonville .  As voters and ratepayers, you have the right to tell them how they should vote at council right now, and you yourself will be able to vote for or against their performance and stance at the Local Body Elections on 9 October 2010
For example, one of our councillors was elected with a slender 130 vote margin. If 130 of your neighbours in strong submissions against the Re-Zoning of Johnsonville at an “area of change”, councillors like her Will Get The Message and vote this plan change off the agenda (or say goodbye to re-election!)

What do We want you to do?
We believe that those of us who chose Johnsonville as our home owe it to ourselves and our families to take a stand on this and MAKE A WRITTEN SUBMISSION to the council by Friday 27 November to ensure the place we live in is not marked for irreparable damage by this proposed plan change for our suburb.
Here are the Links you need to find out about DPC 72 and make a submission

View “Area of Change” detail (buried in a huge mass of WCC paperwork!) at: http://www.wellington.govt.nz/plans/district/planchanges/planchange72.html

Download the Submission Form at; http://www.wellington.govt.nz/plans/district/planchanges/pdfs/change72/change72-subform.pdf

1. Please note that we do not recommend that you oppose DPC72, only that you oppose its provision that Johnsonville be designated an “Area of Change”.
2. Please tick the box that says “I wish to speak at the hearing in support of my submission” (This hearing will occur around April 2010).
3. Note that submissions are individual - please tell them what you think in your own words!
4. Multiple submissions per household are perfectly acceptable – your partner and kids may write submissions too!

What else can you do?

TELL YOUR FRIENDS to send in a submission.

ONCE YOU HAVE SUBMITTED YOUR OBJECTION BY 27 November (as above) we recommend you make your local councillors aware of your opposition to the Johnsonville area of change, and of your support for an extension to the time for submissions.

• Haley Wain ( Haley.Wain@wcc.govt.nz ) Not in support of a 6 month extension to consult adequately with residents
• Ngaire Best ( Ngaire.Best@wcc.govt.nz ) Not in support of a 6 month extension to consult adequately with residents
• Helene Richie ( Helen.ritchie@wcc.govt.nz ) In support of a 6 month extension to consult adequately with residents
• Other WCC councillors key to the process are both mayoral candidates for 20010 elections
• Andy Foster ( Andy.Foster@WCC.govt.nz) Refused indiuvidual requests to extend submission date and as Portfolio Leader: Urban Development & Transport, principal proponent for the “Ghetto Zone Johnsonville proposal
• Kerry Prendergast ( Kerry.Prendergast@wcc.govt.nz )

Who are we?
All Johnsonville residents are part of JPA by right. The executive of JPA is made up of Johnsonville residents from all walks of life who care about the Johnsonville Community and are prepared to get off their chuffs to help preserve and improve our suburb. We work closely with other Residents and Progressive Associations, and with local council, central government & businesses, to achieve those objectives.
We are a diverse bunch who often disagree with each other on some issues, but who are united in their opposition to DPC72’s “Johnsonville Ghetto Zone” proposal.  We will be submitting our objections to DPC formally to Wellington City Council by 27 November, but our voices alone will NOT be enough to stop this plan change from destroying the Johnsonville we love. We need your help, and you need to do something to protect your suburb!
Its time to take a stand. YOU as a Johnsonville resident must make your own submission against DPC72. We aim to provide you with all the links you need to do this quickly and easily. If you need help, call us!