Bigger, denser, less rule-bound Auckland recommended in draft Unitary Plan

Wednesday 27th July 2016

Auckland will be more densely populated, have a 30 percent larger new urban area and a far less prescriptive set of rules for new residential developments than the plan put forward by the Auckland Council, if recommendations of an independent panel are adopted.

The council now has until Aug. 19 to decide whether and how many of the recommendations of the Independent Hearing Panel, which was appointed to come up with a close-to-final version of the Auckland Unitary Plan, to adopt. The enormous and detailed plan was released publicly today, with councillors scheduled to debate the proposed plan in public hearings before adoption by Aug. 19.

The Auckland Council is under heavy political pressure not to make major changes to the proposals as the government looks for answers to the housing affordability crisis gripping the country's largest city.

Six years in the making since the amalgamation of various Auckland local councils into a single ‘super-city’, the IHP concluded that the council’s plans to add capacity for an extra 293,000 dwellings between now and 2041 was too little. Instead, it recommends providing land and appropriate zoning to allow some 422,000 dwellings to be built to meet the panel’s estimate that some 400,000 new apartments, houses, and multi-dwelling units are needed.

The increase is achieved largely by reducing the areas set aside for single house zones in favour of more areas capable of taking multi-dwelling developments, including high-rise apartments, extending the size of the total urban boundary by 30 percent more than Auckland Council initially proposed.

A key change is a proposal to expand the definition of so-called "walkable catchments" for higher density zones to 400-to-800 metres, rather than the council's proposed 200-to-400 metre definition. This will allow far denser urban development around transport corridors and existing town and suburban centres.

While a rural-urban boundary will be retained, it will no longer be part of the regional policy statement and instead be covered by District Plans. That means that instead of requiring a zone change at either the regional council or ministerial level, applications to make land outside the boundary available for residential development will only require a resource consent application to a local council.

Maps supplied with today's materials show far denser residential development than the council proposed throughout the central Auckland isthmus, with the Tamaki estuary, eastern beaches, and parts of the city's southwest considerably particularly affected.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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