“Here’s the offer. Have a nice day”–Roger Sutton

Guest post by Hugh Pavletich

In this mornings Press Marc Greenhill reports unwilling Christchurch  land-owners are about to get an ultimatum from government: Sell up or else.

Landowners unwilling to negotiate with the Government on central Christchurch blueprint buyouts will be told, 'This is the offer, have a nice day', the earthquake recovery boss says.
Speaking on Newstalk ZB yesterday, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority chief executive Roger Sutton said most affected property owners were pleased with the process, and he denied post-quake market value offers were a "bum deal."
" I think the majority are really happy; absolutely,' he said."

NG building owner Roland Logan tells a very different story however.

"NG building owner Roland Logan, who is against compulsory acquisition, said he believed Sutton's view of the number of willing landowners was 'grossly inaccurate'."
"About 100 disaffected landowners had contacted him. “I bet you your bottom dollar you could times that by four or five with the people who are unhappy."

Sutton’s arrogance is unbelievable.

Talk about "bureaucratic brutalization”—that same theme that occurred throughout 2011 is now being played out with only slightly different variations this year.

There is a way forward. But the clearly "out of his depth" Roger Sutton first needs to be gently reminded New Zealand is not yet a fascist society, and that there are still neither costings, feasibility studies nor economic and social impact reports to support either his clownish bureaucratic bullying or his organisation’s top-down anti-recovery plan for central Christchurch—which, as anyone with an ounce of "development nous" would be able to tell him, is another disaster waiting to happen.

Please tell me - who is paying for this bureaucratic Central Area circus?

And how much?

Hugh Pavletich is a Christchurch entrepreneur, the owner of website Performance Urban Planning and the co-author of the Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey, 2011 .