Consenting of Special Housing Areas developments ramping up

Auckland Council is working at pace to consent Special Housing Area (SHA) developments in both urban and future urban (greenfield) locations throughout Auckland.

“The council is currently working with developers in 15 greenfield Special Housing Areas (SHAs) outside the former Metropolitan Urban Limit (MUL),” said Ree Anderson, the council’s Project Director Housing. “These 15 areas alone have a combined area of over 1,300 hectares, which are being rapidly freed up for the development of housing.”

Recent progress includes:
· A completed plan variation for 650 residential sections and associated qualifying development resource consent was approved for the Whenuapai Village SHA in February 2015; earthworks are underway at that site

· A separate structure plan for the Belmont SHA in Pukekohe has also been approved

· An additional 21 plan variations and development consents are in various stages of the fast-track process under the Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Act (HASHAA); these have a potential yield for 20,000 new homes

· The HPO also has approximately 45 additional SHA requests currently under consideration.

The council is working with developers on 56 pre-applications in SHAs which will result in qualifying development resource consents, with the potential yield of over 4,700 new sites and dwellings. It has also approved, or is considering, 169 consent applications for over 2,280 new sites and/or dwellings within SHAs.

Consenting is a different process from establishing SHAs and the council is considering requests for SHAs on an ongoing basis. The council works closely with the Government throughout the whole process of establishing SHAs.

Ree Anderson says that the council agrees that land supply, with planned bulk infrastructure, is a critical component in enabling the delivery of homes.

“The 15 SHAs established outside the old 2010 MUL have contributed at least three years’ worth of additional land supply for residential development. That’s bringing us closer to the Auckland Plan’s target to always have an average of seven years land supply available for development.

“The council is also working to align infrastructure provision and funding through its 2015-2025 Long-term Plan deliberations to areas of growth.”

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