Hard News: The Unitary Plan and grown-up conversations

News media and interest groups have, of course, been immersed in the contents of the Independent Hearings Panel recommendations on the Proposed Aucland Unitary Plan since their publication yesterday. But perhaps we should also take a moment to consider the meaning of the panel's report. Because it really does change things.
Right up until yesterday, it has been possible to characterise the desire to plan for intensification and provide for growth, as the work of fools, knaves, loons, vandals, nameless planners and Len Brown. Opponents of the Unitary Plan will doubtless continue to wilfully misrepresent the implications of the Unitary…