Mayor Wayne Brown at the Auckland Council housing density zoning debate. Photo / Corey Fleming
“It’s a choice between a firing squad and lethal injection,” said councillor Maurice Williamson.
“It’s not about affordability, it’s about profits,” said councillor Mike Lee.
“The leadership is gutless,” said councillor Wayne Walker, looking straight at Mayor Wayne Brown.
There were bitter words in Auckland Council’s debate on its new residential zoning plans yesterday, but at the end of a seven-hour meeting the vote was clear: 18-5. Despite their differences, all the councillors spoke of getting a constructive outcome for the city.
Some were even a touch poetic. Lee said he’d been reading about the Byzantine emperor Theophilos, who met a woman in the street who told him the new palace blocked her sunlight. So he ordered it pulled down.
“I think we could learn a lesson from that,” said Lee. His message was that density plans are driven by developers and do not serve the public interest.
“There’s nothing wrong with developers making money,” said Brown. “We don’t live in a communist country.”
Councillor Richard Hills, who was chairing the meeting, said he didn’t know about Theophilos and was thinking about a different Theo: his 4-year-old son.
Density, he said, would create more affordability and it was definitely in the public interest.
“I want people like my Theo, when he grows up, not to have to move away because it’s too expensive to live here. I think we’re getting on top of it, but we have to do more.”
The essence of the proposal the council approved yesterday is that if housing density is concentrated around good public transport, people will use that public transport - and the more people who do that, the better the service will be.
More passengers equals more trains with cheaper fares: a virtuous circle that takes cars off the roads and lowers carbon emissions.
Some councillors suggested it was a myth that apartment blocks, especially in upmarket parts of town, result in more affordable housing.
Brown replied to that, drawing on his own experience. “I live in an apartment block,” he said. “The unit prices range from millions down to about $400,000. Don’t tell me there aren’t affordable options.”
He said it had been the same with his previous apartment. “And there are lots of facilities for the residents,” he said. “Like a swimming pool. Most of the people in my block couldn’t afford a swimming pool.”
The new plan change, called PC120, creates the capacity for about two million homes, concentrated around railway stations and town centres, and along busy transport routes.
PC120 replaces PC78, which had the same capacity, but spread it over every suburb.
Williamson said he was in favour of density in the right areas but thought the two-million capacity was “insane”. Councillor Ken Turner called it “the definition of insanity”.
The council’s head of planning, Megan Tyler, tried to explain why council officials don’t believe it’s insane. She said capacity has to be larger than required because the council can’t instruct property owners what to do with their property.
Just because the zoning says someone can build a six-storey block, it doesn’t follow that will happen. Creating a large capacity, and also focusing it on approved areas, was the way to get the growth the city wants.
In relation to character housing, the council’s specialist in historic buildings, Noel Reardon, said in 2016 there were 21,100 homes designated as “special character”. This had been reduced in 2022, under PC78, to 16,090. The new PC120 reduced it by a further 733.
“And could you confirm that 680 of those 730 are around Maungawhau [Mt Eden] and other railway stations?” asked Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson. The answer was yes.
In introducing the debate, Hills argued the new rules were not just about putting more density in the right places. They were also about restoring less density to almost all the city’s suburbs and strengthening the council’s ability to cope with “natural hazards” such as coastal erosion and flooding.
Under PC78, the rules did not allow “downzoning” in areas known to be at risk, but the new rules do. He described PC120 as “the strongest protection we have ever had against developments in areas prone to natural hazards”.
Fletcher proposed an amendment to allow “three months of further consultation, community engagement and amendments”, and further modelling.
She said despite “hearsay” that the Government would not accept a delay, she’d been talking to Auckland MPs and had gained the “clear impression” taking extra time would be acceptable.
Brown disputed this. He said he and Hills had been in regular contact with RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and he had not given them that impression.
“The minister has made it clear,” said Brown. “If we don’t make a decision today, he will.”
Fletcher’s amendment was voted down, 15-8, with several councillors saying they did not want to delay the flood protection work.
Most of the councillors made a point of saying the new plan was not perfect, but they believed it was considerably better than what they had before.
The minister will now be formally notified of the decision. He has already indicated that on November 3, after the new council is sworn in, public consultation on the new plan will open.
Bishop has welcomed the council decision. “Auckland now has the opportunity to decide how and where the city grows with greater flexibility than was the case in PC78,” he said.
Votes for the new plan change 120: Wayne Brown, Andy Baker, Josephine Bartley, Angela Dalton, Chris Darby, Julie Fairey, Alf Filipaina, Lotu Fuli, Shane Henderson, Richard Hills, Kerrin Leoni, Daniel Newman, Greg Sayers, Desley Simpson, Sharon Stewart, Maurice Williamson and Houkura members Edward Ashby and Tau Henare.
Votes against: Christine Fletcher, Mike Lee, Ken Turner, Wayne Walker, John Watson.
Simon Wilson is an award-winning senior writer covering politics, the climate crisis, transport, housing, urban design and social issues, with a focus on Auckland. He joined the Herald in 2018.