Fewer townhouses in areas with poor public transport and access to the city centre are on the cards under the latest proposals for Auckland’s new density rules.
Auckland councillors yesterday approved an outline to Housing Minister Chris Bishop on how the council intends to cut the city’s housing capacity from two million homes to 1.6 million.
Bishop had asked the council to outline its plans to him by March 17, after bowing to pressure from concerned Aucklanders over greater intensification in suburbs last month and reducing the housing figure to the lower number.
Mayor Wayne Brown called the decision a sensible approach that corrects insane interference from the Government.
“It’s not the best in the world, but better than what the council had when the Government stuck their oar into Auckland for three houses of three storeys high, on every section in the city,” said Brown.
“We now have capacity for 1.6 million [houses], less than two million, and I agree with that.”
Bishop plans to pass legislation before the end of April to change the Resource Management Act for the 1.6 million figure, ending six years of Wellington directing Auckland on new density rules.
On the advice of planning staff, councillors agreed on nine principles to outline which suburbs and areas may be affected by the lower density target.
Since a workshop on the principles last week, a new principle was presented yesterday to reduce the amount of mixed housing urban (MHU) zoning in areas that lack good access to public transport or the city centre.
The MHU zone allows for three-storey detached homes, terrace housing, and low-rise apartments as of right, or four storeys with a resource consent.
The proposal to reduce MHU comes as newly constructed townhouses are languishing on the market so long they no longer qualify as “new builds”, and developers are moving to build more standalone houses, according to BusinessDesk.
The council’s handling of Bishop’s request sparked strong reactions around the table. Councillors John Gillon and Christine Fletcher proposed an amendment that would have slowed the process, while Mike Lee and Shane Henderson clashed over the merits of intensification in Ponsonby and Te Atatū.
The amendment was lost, but not before Gillon said the Government’s meddling in Auckland had been very stressful to communities, called the original plans for three houses of three storeys high on most sections “bonkers”, and the subsequent plan for two million houses a radical departure from the current Unitary Plan.
He said even the revised 1.6 million target would create far more capacity than Auckland needs, with real‑world consequences for zoning across the entire North Shore and out West.
Policy and Planning Committee chairman Richard Hills called the six‑year process toward new density rules chaotic. He noted the council was now stuck in a legal quagmire, and he was doing everything he could to take a proposal to the Government to change the law.
“We don’t hold the keys,” he said.
When Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson asked whether the 1.6 million figure could be met simply through the intensification already required by law – around train stations, the city centre, metropolitan centres, and town and local centres – senior planner John Duguid said preliminary modelling indicated it could.
“It’s not necessarily the best outcome for Auckland. There could be other options that are better,” he said.
Duguid said officers recommended retaining walkable catchments, which had drawn a lot of feedback in submissions on Plan Change 120 (PC120) – the council’s response to the Government’s directive to plan for a capacity of two million homes, which drew more than 10,500 submissions.
The proposed walkable catchment distance around the central city is about 1200m, or a 15-minute walk. Around metropolitan centre zones and rapid transit stops, it is about 800m, or a 10-minute walk.
Duguid said some people had submitted the walkable catchments were too far, and others not far enough.
The nine principles the councillors considered at yesterday’s policy, planning and development committee are:
Once the Government passes legislation for the 1.6 million figure, the council will prepare draft maps for the changes.
Aucklanders will then have the opportunity for new submissions on PC120.
An independent hearings panel will consider all of the submissions and make recommendations to the council.
Bishop has made it clear he wants the revised PC120 wrapped up by May 2027.
Intensification plans for Auckland date back to 2021 when the Labour Government, with National’s support, introduced the Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS). These rules allowed up to three dwellings, three storeys high, on most residential sections in Auckland, a policy widely known as the “3 x 3″ rule.
The council introduced Plan Change 78 in 2022 to implement the MDRS, but scrapped it last year after agreeing to Bishop’s alternative approach, which focuses on intensification along transport corridors while still providing capacity for the same number of homes – estimated at two million.
That decision paved the way for PC120, introduced last year, which also restricts development on about 12,000 properties identified as being at risk from flooding or landslides.
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