Albert -Eden Local Board votes for more homes in the right places

Plan Change 120 requires Auckland Council to zone for more housing capacity around transport links, and also allows for downzoning in areas of flood risk. Local boards were recently asked to choose between two options for revising the original draft. Option A is to do the absolute legal minimum, which would concentrate upzoning around the five Western Line train stations—Maungawhau to Mount Albert—specified in the legislation, while Option B enables more housing capacity around all train lines, Northern Busway stations, and frequent public transport networks.

Getting housing right means balancing the need for more homes in the right places alongside the desire to protect heritage and the urgent imperative to stop building homes in flood zones. Chair Margi Watson says, ‘It’s not all or nothing—there’s room to protect some character and provide more housing. We want people to have options and opportunities around where they live, work and grow up. There’s no better place than areas connected to good transport.’

In considering the options for Plan Change 120, we’re making decisions for the future. The housing it enables won’t all be built tomorrow, but over the next several decades, providing choices for young people today and for generations to come. Allowing a mix of housing types provides choices for young people starting out, for growing families, and for older Aucklanders who need to downsize but want to stay in the neighbourhoods they love. 

Medium-density living in Point Chevalier: housing options for all life stages, close to a great town centre

More people living around our town centres means a stronger local economy for the businesses that make them great places to work and play. Building homes near public transport links means people can get around the city without adding to traffic. Option B makes the most of our infrastructure investment, and providing capacity where it makes most sense means we can downzone land that’s at high risk for flooding, coastal inundation or other natural hazards. We’re asking the Mayor and Councillors to make sure all land at high risk from flooding is downzoned, and to take another look at the rules to prevent development from increasing flood risk on nearby sites.

Blue-green infrastructure protecting housing along Te Auaunga Oakley Creek

Of course, we still need more investment as we grow: in parks, libraries and community centres, in water and wastewater networks, in stormwater separation and blue-green infrastructure to protect from flooding. More density in the right places means this infrastructure is easier to afford: it’s cheaper than building new infrastructure from scratch on the rural fringes of the city, and we have more residents to help bear the costs.

Option B gives Auckland scope to add homes where they make the most sense, and helps us build for the future and grow into a city where everyone has a place. E kore teenei whakaoranga e huri ki tua o aku mokopuna: we must provide our children and their children a better platform than the one we inherited.