Towns become cities
Auckland is preparing for 120,000 new homes on its rural fringes that will result in small towns like Warkworth, Pukekohe and Kumeu becoming mini cities. Today, officials will consider a report to set a new timetable for the homes at six main locations in
Auckland is preparing for a housing boom on the city’s rural fringes that will result in small towns such as Warkworth, Pukekohe and Kumeu becoming mini-cities.
The new Unitary Plan has prompted Auckland Council to lay out a timetable for greenfield development costing $20 billion and, for the first time, a breakdown of infrastructure problems holding housing back.
Today, the council’s planning committee will consider a report to allow for 120,000 new homes at six areas in the north, northwest and south of the city. It is expected to be approved for public consultation between March 29 and April 18.
“It would be prohibitively expensive to invest in all future urban areas concurrently,” says an officers’ report about the need to provide transport, water, wastewater, stormwater, parks and community facilities over the 30-year-plan.
Auckland needs about 400,000 new homes by 2041, many of which will be smaller townhouses and apartments built within the current urban footprint, close to public transport and existing amenities.
The Unitary Plan has increased rural land for housing from 11,000ha to 15,000ha, including “live zoning” some land earmarked for urban development in the future.
This has led the council to rethink the sequencing of land for housing. Factors such as the completion of the Puhoi-to-Warkworth motorway in 2021 have brought forward housing plans in Warkworth, and soil testing at Takanini has pushed back 5000 new homes.
Planning committee chairman Chris Darby said the plan made it feasible to build 120,000 new homes but funding it was a challenge for the council, the Government and Aucklanders.
One idea in Mayor Phil Goff’s first budget is to target new residential developments with higher rates to cover the infrastructure burden.
Borrowing is not an option because the council already has debt levels that could lower its AA credit rating and mean higher repayments.
The Government, a critic of Auckland Council’s land supply pipeline for new housing, has announced plans for locally controlled urban development authorities (UDAs) with land acquisition powers and fasttracked resource consent processes.
Darby said there had never been a plan for new housing in “greenfield” areas like the latest council plan. It made the timing of developments clearer to rural land owners and infrastructure providers and “probab0ly put a lid on quick buck land speculation”.
The key housing areas are Warkworth and Silverdale/Wainui/Dairy Flat in the north, Kumeu/Huapai/ Riverhead in the northwest and Takanini/Puhinui, Drury/Opaheke/ Hingaia and Pukekohe/Paerata in the south.
About two-thirds of the houses are planned in the north and northwest.