What if Instagram girlies planned Auckland?
Go to Instagram. Search posts tagged with Auckland. You’ll be flooded with: photos of the Skytower
photos taken from the top of Mt Eden
photos of the Skytower taken from the top of Mt Eden. So it shouldn’t be surprising that the residents of Tāmaki Makaurau deeply value our maunga.…
18 Comments Going for Housing Growth: Filling the housing donut?
Hot take: it should be affordable to live in Auckland.
You may not be surprised to learn I’m not the only one with this hot take. Indeed, the Minister of Housing recently took the notable step of saying house prices should come down, something common wisdom says should be a politically toxic thing to proclaim out loud.…
Waterproofing the City
As the planet continues to cook, extreme weather events like those we experienced over the last two weeks are set to become more frequent. How we plan our cities to mitigate the risks of climate change will inevitably be more salient going forward, and that will only increase over time.…
NIMBYs go BANANAs over young singles in their area
An editorial in the NZ Herald last week, titled “Nimbyism goes bananas as housing intensifies“, introduced Herald readers to a couple of acronyms that go along with the now-familiar NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard):
“bananas” (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone)
“cave” dwellers (citizens against virtually everything).…
More Homes vs Light Rail
Last week, the Coalition for More Homes sent a letter that we really shouldn’t have had to write. But first, some backstory and some acronyms.
Auckland Council is required to implement Government planning reforms called the NPS-UD and MDRS. The NPS-UD (National Policy Statement on Urban Design 2020).…
Abolish Zoning?
Much is made about how our cities manage the growth of the housing stock by engaging in the process of “urban planning”, that this is performed by “urban planners”, and that the colourful maps which are the outcome of this process done by these people are “plans”.…
Protecting Tāmaki Makaurau’s Urban Character
If twenty-thousand buildings across the city were determined to have exactly the same kind of character, few would try to claim that each and every one is “special”. And yet, this is exactly what Auckland Council planners are doing. The National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD) is a document containing international best practices for developing affordable, accessible, and low-carbon cities, which directs the major local authorities to upzone to allow up to 6 story apartments near to important transit and employment centres.…
Building Local
In their ongoing efforts to tackle the housing crisis in New Zealand and reshape urban development, the government put forward a bipartisan RMA amendment at the end of last year, which most notably introduced the so-called Townhouse Nation standards to allow 3 homes of 3 stories on almost any suburban site.…
Futile Councillors Fight An Affordable Future
Like both housing and heritage advocates, Auckland Council is rushing to put out a response to the recently announced Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS) which are currently going through select committee. Last week, they had their monthly public planning committee meeting, much of which revolved around their submission.…
The Great Intensification
The government shocked everyone yesterday as Minister of Housing Megan Woods and Minister for the Environment David Parker held a joint press conference in the beehive theatrette with Leader of the Opposition Judith Collins and Opposition Housing Spokesperson Nicola Willis.
The only thing more surprising was what they were actually announcing: New Zealand is abolishing single family zoning.…
Processing...