Auckland Council signals preference for housing developments within urban areas

Auckland Council has signaled a preference for future Special Housing Areas (SHAs) to be in Auckland’s existing urban (brownfield) areas rather than greenfield ones which are rural and therefore require much more – and costly - infrastructure.

The council’s Auckland Development Committee last month decided it wants SHA proposals to have at least 50 houses or be exemplars of the desired outcomes and objectives of council’s housing strategy.

“The council has considered more than 300 requests for SHAs over the past 18 months and 84 have been approved by the government so we are doing really well,” says Committee Chair and Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse.

“But now we are half way through the Housing Accord period we need to become even more targeted in our selection of development sites with the best outcomes for Aucklanders.”

The resolutions were made at the committee’s April meeting in confidence and have subsequently been conveyed to developers and other interested parties. As part of those resolutions decisions on three requested SHAs in Huapai were deferred; they would have had a combined potential yield of 230 sections. The locations of the three deferrals, as with all proposed SHAs, remain confidential until the areas are approved by the government and Governor-General.

“Councillors had received a very clear message from local Huapai residents at an earlier public meeting that they did not want a whole lot more people living in an area with terrible roading and no way of getting down the north-western motorway on public transport,” says Ms Hulse.

The committee also signaled the need for high-level engagement with central government on the funding of key infrastructure to service SHAs.

“As a council we are doing everything we can to speed up the building process but it’s absolutely imperative central government takes Auckland’s housing crisis seriously and commits to funding the vital infrastructure required,” says Ms Hulse.

“We can now focus on brownfield sites which already have good levels of infrastructure service but we still need central government help to shore up the funding for roads and water and electricity supply.

“Otherwise the cost of growth will be borne by Auckland ratepayers. Developer contributions only cover some of the costs of new subdivisions, the rest downstream are covered by ratepayers and those ratepayers do not want larger rate rises.”

The council is working with developers on 56 pre-applications in SHAs which have the potential yield of more than 4700 new sites and homes. It has also approved, or is considering, 169 consent applications for more than 2280 new sites and/or dwellings within SHAs.

Another 45 SHA requests, including the three deferred, are under consideration and will be determined partly on the results of discussions with government about infrastructure.

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