Squeeze put on Auckland City

The squeeze is coming on the Auckland City Council to squash more people into suburbs such as Panmure and Avondale even if locals want fewer folks living in their midst.

The Auckland Regional Council believes Auckland City is going soft on intensive housing and wants it to write minimum densities and heights into the district plan.

This would affect 19 suburbs earmarked for growth.

The ARC's approach has raised alarm bells at the council and in communities where high-rise, high-density housing has struck opposition. There is a feeling that the ARC is focused on the "theoretical" side of the Regional Growth Strategy and is out of touch with the impact of growth on communities.

The secretary of the Panmure Community Action Group, Keith Sharp, whose suburb was a pilot project for the growth strategy, said the ARC was instructing Auckland City to enforce growth rather than just allow for it.

This was in tandem with the ARC going to the Environment Court to force the council to break a promise made to Panmure residents over height limits for development in a residential block between Pilkington and Jellicoe Rds, he said.

The Newmarket Business Association has come out this week against the proposed Queen's Lodge eight-level apartment block between Broadway and the railway station.

"The people of Newmarket are genuinely worried that the hundreds of apartments about to go up on this prime site could be nothing more than rabbit hutches," said association general manager Cameron Brewer.

Increasing pressure by the ARC and its transport arm, the Auckland Regional Transport Authority, to deliver "theoretical" high-density targets close to public transport routes, a review of the growth strategy next year and Auckland City plans to write growth goals into the district plan will be discussed by its urban strategy and governance committee tomorrow.

"The ARC has expressed concern in Panmure and Avondale that the areas identified for more intensive housing in each area are insufficient to meet the capacity numbers required to support future rail development," said the acting manager of city planning, Penny Pirrit, in a report prepared for the committee.

Urban strategy and governance committee chairman Bruce Hucker said the ARC was remote from communities, whereas Auckland City had to work with residents and get people to buy into "liveable community" plans for growth.

He said the council was generally supportive of the strategy and on target to meet its share of growth.

ARC chairman Mike Lee, who also chairs the Regional Growth Forum, said the fundamental principles of the strategy for a compact city were sound but he did not favour rabbit hutches in central Auckland or inappropriate infill housing in garden suburbs.

The ARC was right to look at minimum densities and heights so long as the minimums were not too high and provided flexibility, he said.

Next year's review was the best forum to discuss the issues, said Mr Lee. The ARC also believed Auckland's growth pains were a national issue and wanted Government help to deal with the region's growth pressures and look at its implications for the rest of New Zealand.

Growing pains

* 320,000 new homes are planned for Greater Auckland by 2050.

* 51 growth areas, including 19 in Auckland City, are earmarked for much of the growth.

* Those 19 areas are the central business district, Avondale, Stoddard Rd, Mt Albert, Sandringham, Balmoral/Dominion Rd, Newmarket, Pt Chevalier, Surrey Cres/Grey Lynn, Mt Roskill, Onehunga, Royal Oak, Remuera, Ellerslie, Mt Wellington/Sylvia Park, Panmure, Glen Innes, Otahuhu, Mt Wellington quarry.

* ARC planners accuse Auckland City of going soft on its growth targets.

* The Regional Growth Strategy is up for review next year.