“Activate North” is a working group established to advocate for the transformation of the area from Devonport to Orewa and west to Hobsonville and Dairy Flat, into a connected community to live, learn, work and recreate, while reducing the need for residents to look for employment opportunities outside their locality.

Activate North’s first initiative is to call on Auckland Council and the Government to deliver a collaborative strategic plan for the area, modelled on international best practice such as the Greater Sydney Commission’s Collaboration Areas Programme.

The area is growing rapidly. Even prior to the Government’s changes to the RMA to enable housing supply, around 54% more people were expected to be living within the area by 2043. The Government’s cost benefit analysis anticipates doubling this planned intensification, so urban Auckland’s northern population could double in size within 20 years. That would create a community approaching a million people.

Against that population growth:

· North Auckland relies on a harbour bridge that has “exceptionally weak” ground conditions and which presents a critical threat to fragile transport links and Auckland’s economy.

· Auckland’s North Shore is the second highest area for ICT businesses and professional services, and has New Zealand’s highest growth rate for TIN200 companies.

· There is a critical shortage of new business land, the only new area likely to become available is at Silverdale around the North Shore Airport – Albany and Takapuna are basically retail centric with office support.

· In order to achieve the government’s new target of reducing emissions to 50% below 2005 levels within the next 9 years, people north of the harbour bridge are going to have to drastically reduce the distances that they travel to work and the carbon emissions they generate in doing so.

· The government’s intensification has preceded any planning for new schools, playing fields, parks and business land.

· The education pathways for north Auckland kids to transition from school into jobs is already inadequate.

· The East Coast Bays area is likely to attract a greater share of future housing intensification than other parts of Auckland because of its attractive beaches, parks and schooling.

“The RMA changes will bring a massive change to the urban design of North Auckland, because the area is dominated by the Mixed Housing Suburban and Single House zones which will have the greatest intensification under the RMA changes.” said spokesperson Andrew Braggins. “Where is the inevitable business growth going to go?”

“Planning for brownfield intensification is considerably more difficult than greenfield expansion and we haven’t had much experience with it in New Zealand. The best examples are relatively confined residential areas such as the Tamaki Regeneration Plan but that project involved a lot of direct investment and planning by the government and is much, much smaller than the scale that northern Auckland is facing.”

Activate North was already working on an initiative in response to the “Shore Unity” report which identifies some major concerns facing the area and also highlights some exciting opportunities including:

• nurturing a connected and innovative residential, education and business community, to attract investment and drive business and employment growth
• creating transport certainty by providing a seamless system which includes improved roading, parking and public transport, which links residential, education and business areas

Andrew Braggins concluded that:

“We now face a critical crossroad; choosing to channel the huge disruption caused by Covid-19 and the major RMA amendments to actually make some structural changes to the sub-region’s economy and to make sure that the next 500,000 people living north of the Harbour Bridge will enjoy it, or people will leave the Shore for the regions or – more likely – Australia.”

“This is not simply a zoning issue and no single agency, or layer of government, can deliver great places alone. We need to bring together central government, Auckland Council, CCOs, local boards and key northern institutions to collectively create a great future for North Auckland.”

The “Shore Unity” report is available at https://activatenorth.co.nz/

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