Auckland’s growth strategy revolves around maximising density in a series of urban centres and villages across the city.
People already naturally gravitate to these places. It’s where they go to find services and amenities and connect with public transport. In the future, more people will live close to these centres.
Eke Panuku general manager of design and place Gyles Bendall says in the past there’s been little emphasis on density and not much popular demand for denser living.
Now that is shifting. Auckland is growing up, in both senses of the term.
“The Unitary Plan allows density in these areas,” says Bendall. “People’s appetite for density is changing fast: 15 or 20 years ago most Aucklanders found the idea of terraced houses or apartments frightening.
“People weren’t used to the idea. Today many more people are living in the city centre. They understand the benefits and that alters perceptions.
“The next stage is now under way with many more apartments and denser developments being built around the city’s other urban centres.”
Bendall leads the Auckland development agency’s urban planning team, which is charged with the job of designing and regenerating those centres. Eke Panuku doesn’t do the building itself; that is left to developers.
The agency’s role is to prepare the land and handle the big-picture planning. Where necessary, the agency will work to improve infrastructure. It aims to make sure the right infrastructure is there, making the most of existing infrastructure and council assets, then it sells the land to developers who buy into the vision and value Eke Panuku creates.
Says Bendall: “We masterplan the town centres. It depends on the scale of how many properties we have. But we will have a plan that says: ‘This is the land we’ve got; these are the properties that we’re going to put to market; and these are the projects we’re investing in.’ It could be a green way, a cycleway or a square.
“Then we sit down with the developers and say: ‘This property we’re going to put on the market; this is what we want out of it’. We provide them with guidance. Some of it is soft, along the lines of ‘this is what we’d like, but we’d like to hear your proposition’, and some of it is more directive in terms of sustainability or Homestar ratings. The job is to find the right partners who bind to the vision”.
Eke Panuku doesn’t dictate the building designs, that’s also left to the developers’ architects. But there is a collaboration with the agency’s internal design team. Bendall points out there’s also an independent design panel which is all about lifting the game and testing things. But for the most part, the final shape of the denser urban centre developments is down to finding partners who can deliver quality projects.
There are times when Eke Panuku needs to be prescriptive. Its goal is to increase the population in the centres, which means there needs to be a balance between residential and commercial properties.
Creating denser urban areas is one way to manage Auckland’s growth and deal with the city’s housing shortage. Filling in brownfield sites this way is preferable to extending the urban sprawl into what is often prime agricultural land.
It means people don’t face long commutes from areas where there are fewer facilities and few public transport options.
At the same time, having more people close to urban centres creates demand for cafes, retailers and commercial property: it’s the essence of regeneration. It means places don’t empty at 5pm.
Gyles Bendall.
An example of this is the Waiwharariki Anzac Square in Takapuna, now under construction. It was a carpark in the centre of Takapuna. Soon it will be a place where people can live, meet, go to the market and have a beer, or go to a restaurant and the library. The city ends up with a nicer place, but also one where there is commercial activity and jobs right where people are living.
The biggest challenge Auckland’s planners face is the complexity of lining everything up.
“Urban regeneration is inherently challenging because it takes a lot of time,” explains Bendall. “It takes a lot of partnership and a lot of collaboration. Sometimes the timing is not right for certain things.
“Right now, we’re going into a tougher market cycle. That will slow things down. There’s nothing we can control. We just have to work within that. The market cycle might be slow for a couple of years and then build up again. We have to be agile about altering programmes and adjusting to that.”
Manukau is Eke Panuku’s largest development opportunity. In effect, the agency is developing Auckland’s second city centre where its investment in infrastructure and providing access is opening the way for private investment in the city’s southern gateway.
“We are leveraging off a huge amount of investment into the transport network with the rail station that’s been there for several years now,” explains Bendall. “But also, Auckland Transport has its A to B project. That’s the Auckland Airport to Botany high-frequency public transport network that goes through Manukau.”
The thinking is that the private sector will see the potential of an area that’s close to the airport, with a huge catchment area for customers and workers and that is connected by the new high-frequency connection, as well as the existing railway links and the adjacent motorway. At the same time, residential developments mean people will be able to live and work in the same location.
A classic example of how Eke Panuku can unlock land for development is the Barrowcliffe Bridge connecting Wiri to central Manukau.
“It was the bridge to nowhere. It was built when State Highway 18 was developed, but there was just a paddock on the other side.
“That piece of land was council-owned. We’ve upgraded the bridge for walking and cycling and put a new connection through there. It’s part of a bigger plan to connect down and regenerate the Puhinui stream.
“Before the bridge, you couldn’t get into Manukau from Wiri or the southern suburbs. It was a long drive. Now there’s a direct connection.”
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