New Zealand gets its first new town at Drury

The Drury development will be a mixed-use community with a town centre.

Eighteen months ago, Phil Twyford was briefed by developers over their intense frustrations, inability to get key decisions made and having to deal with multiple Government and council agencies to get a major new development at Drury underway.

Twyford heard their message and tasked Ernst Zollner from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to be the "point man".

"What we did was set-up a sort of one-stop-shop to make it easy for the developers to work with both Government and council agencies and to try to expedite decisions."

His three portfolios — Urban Development, Economic Development and Transport — gave him the necessary political collateral with his Cabinet colleagues to fast-track decisions.

The rapidly evolving plan to place New Zealand's first new town at Drury, south of Auckland, is the result — a town that Twyford predicts will ultimately be larger than Napier.

The Government is now making a multibillion-dollar investment in the area: everything from transport — which was allocated in the NZ Upgrade package — through to developing proposals for a regional hospital to service Southern Auckland, the Northern Waikato, Thames and Coromandel, schools, fire stations and more.

The key to the evolution of the new town is the Government's January 29 announcement.

It will invest $2.4 billion in roads and rail to unlock growth in South Auckland which will support the new town Twyford is championing at Drury, as well as further development at Paerata, Pukekohe and Karaka.

The investment breaks down this way: $1.35b to build Mill Rd, $371 million to extend the electrified rail network to Pukekohe, $247m for new railway stations, a park-and-ride facility, and a bus and rail interchange at Drury, and $423m to improve SH1 between Papakura and Drury South.

"This is a break from the ad hoc way we have previously planned our towns and suburbs," says Twyford. "Instead of transport infrastructure having to catch up with housing development, we are investing in the roads and rail from the outset.

"For the first time we are putting the horse before the cart."

Twyford's passion for getting all the infrastructure in place will certainly be needed if the new town is to emerge at pace.

"Really it's a story of the Government leading on some major transport investments to unlock what is arguably the country's biggest and most promising urban development opportunity at Drury," he says.

"We're building not only homes, but a whole new community."

Infrastructure New Zealand's former CEO Stephen Selwood had long championed a satellite city to be built around the small rural settlement of Paerata, just north of Pukekohe.

Twyford lists Drury's advantages: "It's strategically located, so it's incredibly well-connected with the motorway and also the rail line.

"And it is like that whole Southern growth corridor (Stephen was arguing this for so many years) is very well served by water and electricity infrastructure which is obviously critical.

"It's at the geographic centre of the Golden Triangle with connections to the Bay of Plenty and the Waikato, the centre of gravity for economic development and population is moving South down that corridor, so for all those reasons, it's a very, very important site."

In Twyford's view the Drury model is a break from New Zealand tradition where "development hasn't happened because we've been either unable or unwilling to invest in the infrastructure to enable it.

"That has slowed down the ability of the market to respond to demand," he explains.

"Or, what happens, is we allow suburban expansion, but don't build infrastructure to support it, and that just inflicts pain on people.

Transport Minister Phil Twyford. Photo / Mark Mitchell

"And they suffer gridlock and unsafe roads. And you can see that in other parts of Auckland.

"People in the North West are screaming about this. And people in the South.

"So this is a whole different approach, where we are deliberately investing and enabling transport infrastructure to support the kind of growth that we want in the kind of place that we want it."

The Drury development has brought together a group of some of the country's biggest developers: Fulton Hogan, Oyster Capital/Fletchers and Kiwi Property at Drury East.

The Stevenson Group is building an industrial park at the Drury Southern Crossing.

Says Twyford: "At Drury West on the other side of the motorway, you've got Charles Ma's Auranga development. He is a young entrepreneur developer.

"What they (the developers) have shown me so far, is very promising. They've commissioned detailed master planning of the entire site.

"It's a mixed-use community with a town centre — not a mall — but a town centre with a main street serving communities, residential development and commercial and industrial development.

So, it's designed to develop jobs and housing and be a kind of beating heart."

For their part the developers are singing the Government's praises.

"Phil Twyford has been a champion for Drury and the Government has really stepped forward," says Kiwi Property CEO Clive Mackenzie.

"They really need to be applauded in terms of really putting their money where their mouth is.

"This really isn't about making it a commuter city.

"This is making it a hub for the area so that people don't have to commute from here into Auckland.
"Yes, obviously some people are going to do that, but it's really creating a hub and creating a community location that everyone can really use as a focal point.

"That's one way of cutting back of all the people trying to come into the city."

Both Twyford and developers agree one of the big issues is the lack of transit-orientated development.

"The huge challenge in South Auckland is that it's perfect for growth," says Twyford.

"But the Southern Motorway is this terrible bottleneck and the last thing you want do is just make that worse.

"So, the developers' plan is to build this town around two new railway stations and that's part of the NZ Upgrade.

"They're planning walking and cycling routes along streams ... there will be separated walking and cycling on all of the arterials.

"You know, that's not the norm, for New Zealand developments to invest like that, right up front."

Twyford credits the developers for convincing Auckland Council to adopt a structure plan for the area which draws heavily on their own master-planning.

"But without the transport infrastructure, basically, none of this could happen," he underlines.

"So the opportunity that NZ Upgrade provided, was to $2.4b of transport investments that under business as usual would have been incrementally rolled out probably over two decades, realistically.

"What we've been able to do now is invest upfront to run all of those projects in parallel and start straight away."

The transport projects are outlined in detail in an interview with NZTA's Brett Gliddon on D16-17 of this report.

Ateed is alert to the economic opportunities.

"We see opportunities to attract investment and grow sectors such as light manufacturing, food, logistics or tech," says Ateed GM Economic Development Pam Ford.

There is a strategic element to Twyford's approach.

"It's basically a whole corridor-based approach to spatial planning and urban development. We brought together all of the councils from rural Waikato right up to Auckland and mana whenua groups and there are three main areas to it.

"One is an urban metro plan or spatial plan for Hamilton.

"There's the river communities and then there's the Southern Auckland growth corridor, which is really, kind of ground zero for the urban growth of New Zealand.

"Drury is the centrepiece of that Southern Auckland corridor. And that's why it's really important. But it is part of this planned approach to the whole corridor."