Auckland Council debates new plan for 2 million homes, higher building density

Councillors have begun debating Auckland’s new plan to make room for two million homes at today’s policy and planning committee.

The city’s skyline is in for a major makeover in Auckland Council’s boldest planning update since the 2016 Unitary Plan. It aims to boost building heights and density around major transport routes and town centres.

The draft plan is a response to a new framework for urban development in Auckland put forward by Resource Management Act Reform Minister Chris Bishop.

Committee chairman Richard Hills said today’s process would be confusing to the public. Councillors will vote to opt out of Plan Change 78 in response to the medium-density residential standards (MDRS) introduced by the previous Government.

They will also vote to endorse a draft replacement plan and consult with local boards and mana whenua. If approved next month, the draft plan would go out for public consultation, said Hills, who was 99.9% sure it would lead to hearings.

Mayor Wayne Brown said: “We either do this ourselves, or we get done to us [by the Government]. The MDRS was done to us.

“We need to intensify to make the best use of the City Rail Link, and we have to stop the city from sprawling out wide. Overall, this makes a lot of sense.”

There are now rules in the plan for hazards, like coastal erosion. Photo / Alex Burto

Among the proposed changes are:

• 10-storey and 15-storey developments will be allowed within a 10-minute walk of some train stations, rapid bus stations and the edge of town centres. There will be 44 such “walkable catchments”.
• An increase in the amount of land zoned for three-storey dense housing.
• Terraced housing and low-rise apartments will be increased in height from five to six storeys with more permissive height-to-boundary rules. These rules will apply to a further 11 town centres.
• Height limits will be raised to six storeys along more major transport corridors.
• 12,000 properties will be “downzoned”, making new developments on them harder or not permitted at all, because they are at risk of “natural hazards” such as coastal erosion and flooding.
• “Special character” designations will disappear in some parts of the city.

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