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Growth in parts of Silverdale, Dairy Flat and Wainui will be shunted back at least a decade if Auckland Council adopts a draft Future Development Strategy, which is out for public feedback until July 4.
Dairy Flat representative on the Rodney Local Board, Louise Johnson, is encouraging residents to make submissions on the far-reaching proposals, which revisit the timeframes for live zoning large tracts of greenfield land.
Locally, Council wants to delay development in many areas, including Silverdale, Ōrewa and Dairy Flat, until critical infrastructure can be provided.
In the case of Dairy Flat, the proposal is to push out urbanisation until 2050 and review the Future Urban zoning.
It has also marked some future urban zoned land for further investigation due to infrastructure constraints, emissions reduction and natural hazards considerations.
Auckland Plan strategy and research general manager Jacques Victor says this doesn’t mean that these areas cannot be developed in the future, but there needs to be a better understanding of the impacts on people and property.
For Hatfields Beach, the strategy proposes removing greenfield land previously earmarked for future urban development where housing would be exposed to significant natural hazards.
“Future urban (greenfield) land is an important part of the council’s overall strategy for Auckland’s growth and making sure people have housing choices available,” Victor says.
With half a million more people expected to live in Auckland by 2058, council says its plan is to make sure homes, jobs and infrastructure are built in the right places, at the right time, while also building resilience to climate change and protecting the environment.
Proposals include focusing growth in existing urban areas rather than growing more at the edges of the city, focusing development near local centres, avoiding further growth in areas which are exposed to significant risk of environmental hazards, and prioritising nature-based infrastructure that responds to the impacts of climate change.
One way that developers have got around the future urban zone timeframes, outlined in the Auckland Unitary Plan, has been through private plan changes.
However, future private plan changes will face tougher rules if the draft strategy is adopted. Victor says while council has limited options to address these plan changes, the strategy proposes that priority areas for investment should be strictly followed. Once confirmed through council’s next 10-year Budget 2024-34, funded programmes should be adhered to. “Changes to the Auckland Unitary Plan will be made to strengthen the statutory decision-making framework for private plan changes in future urban areas.”
Planning, Environment and Parks Committee, Councillor Richard Hills says the strategy looks at the big issues around growth that affect quality of life – issues such as where people choose to live and work, how they move around the city, resilience to natural hazards and growing in a way that both reduces emissions and adapts to climate change, to benefit future generations.
“We want to hear from Aucklanders on whether they think we have got this right.”
People can make a submission online through the Auckland Council website at: akhaveyoursay.nz/futureauckland, until July 4.
