A step forward for housing capacity in our largest city – or a step back on housing affordability?
Auckland’s explosive debate over density planning has come to a head, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop making a U-turn on capacity limits.
It’s all got to do with the controversial “PC120” plan, which has been scaled back slightly to allow for 1.6 million homes to be built, as opposed to two million.
Housing and RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop unveiled the new capacity today and has addressed the “red herring” that has been the two million figure.
“The two million number was never a build target. It is a technical capacity figure based on theoretical maximum development if every site is fully developed, which obviously never happens.
“In practical terms, this is likely to mean less blanket intensification in some suburbs and more growth focused around the city centre, town, local and metropolitan centres, as well as rapid transit and stations benefiting from investment in the City Rail Link,” he said.
It’s now up to the Auckland Council to decide which parts of the plan will change – or which suburbs will come away unscathed by density settings.
Housing density will go ahead near transport hubs and rail corridors, and the Government will also legislate to enable more housing development in the CBD.
Senior journalist Simon Wilson told The Front Page that the central Government has essentially stepped in because local councils find it politically hard to rezone for more density due to strong local opposition.
“So, there’ll be a plan change with a new number, and the council will be the people who will decide, not the Government, which parts of the city don’t have that density, provided you still retain density around train stations, town centres, and on major transport routes.
“What that turns into really is if you think of a suburb like Howick, where the local councillors have been up in arms about density proposed in their area, it’s quite likely that council will consider a proposal now from those councillors to remove Howick from the density plan.
“If you look at a place like Mt Eden and the Epsom electorate, where there has also been a big controversy ... Mt Eden is close to train stations, it’s close to town, it’s very hard to see how that area would not retain the current plan.
“The political issue might go away in the outer suburbs, but it’s not necessarily going to go away in the closest suburbs, particularly in that Epsom/Mt Eden area.
“You would expect that they won’t want to give Act too much ammunition to attract voters in the Epsom electorate away from National. And you have to remember, in Epsom, although David Seymour comfortably holds the seat, the electorate party vote in Epsom goes to National. Act is only the fourth most popular party in Epsom, behind Labour and the Greens.
“There is a lot of potential, you could argue, for the party vote in Epsom to swing to Act and National won’t want that to happen,” he said.
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The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5pm. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
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