The Government’s backdown on housing intensification in Auckland still has some way to run before residents will know how the changes affect their neighbourhoods.
Housing Minister Chris Bishop today announced sweeping changes to Auckland’s densification plans, cutting the city’s theoretical housing capacity from two million homes to 1.6 million.
The Wellington-based MP, who has come under pressure from Auckland MPs after feedback from angry residents over the two million figure, described the changes as “a more politically sustainable plan”.
He said the Government had listened to Aucklanders concerned about suburban sprawl and was now focused on ensuring growth happened in the right places – around the City Rail Link, rapid transit routes, busways and town centres.
“That is where most people support housing going, and where the economics means it should go,” Bishop said.
The Government will also legislate to enable more housing development in the CBD.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told the Herald the shift means intensification in the suburbs “should go away”.
“We have done our part to take the capacity and load off the council; now it’s up to the council to make that work and put the density in the right places,” he said.
As a result of the Government’s changes, the Auckland Council will now be asked to review the city’s housing plan and remove suburbs or areas where it does not want blanket intensification to occur.
But in what Bishop has described as a “legally complicated” process, the Cabinet has asked the council to provide a summary of provisional zoning changes for legislation he expected to pass late next month or in early April.
The legal complexity stems from the fact that the two-million figure is embedded in Plan Change 120, which has already attracted 10,000 submissions and is currently before an independent hearings panel. Reducing the figure to 1.6 million effectively alters the foundation of the plan and triggers a need to revisit the process.
Planning committee chair Richard Hills said the council does not yet know what the forthcoming legislation will look like, or how it will enable the withdrawal of all or parts of the current maps that show where intensification can occur.
He said a key issue was how the council communicates the changes to the public, because many residents may assume the reduction applies to their neighbourhood when that may not be the case.
Bishop stressed that he wanted the process wrapped up within the 20-month timeframe for Plan Change 120, which ends in May next year.
“It won’t be delayed,” he said in a speech today to the Committee for Auckland.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown is comfortable with the reduced housing capacity of 1.6 million, but his office says there is still work to do with Wellington on the process leading up to the legislative changes.
At today’s speech, Bishop said “softening” the housing capacity requirement struck an appropriate balance between those Aucklanders concerned about densification and those who wished to see more growth.
The changes would also mean more flexibility and increased capacity in Auckland’s city centre, where the Government wanted to unlock greater housing density.
“Enabling more growth in the city centre will unlock productivity and increase the benefits of CRL [City Rail Link] even further,” Bishop said.
Cabinet has agreed to an investigation into planning provisions for the CBD, with regulations to be made under the Resource Management Act to enable more central housing development, he said.
Bishop said the intention was to include any additional housing in central Auckland within the lowered 1.6 million-dwelling capacity number.
He said the focus was on growing a rapid transport network, giving people more choice in where they live and on a more productive economy.
“Together, these changes announced today will provide the Auckland Council greater flexibility to respond to the feedback of Aucklanders and tackle our housing crisis.”
Auckland Minister and Pakuranga MP Simeon Brown called today’s announcement a significant win for Auckland, reducing by 23% the housing capacity the Auckland Council is required to plan for, and focusing growth where it actually makes sense.
“Our city centre, town centres, and the City Rail Link corridor are the right places to be building up, not forcing more intensification on to suburban streets where it simply doesn’t fit, he said.
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 Plan Change 120, 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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