Waitakere City to free up land

Waitakere City Council is pushing the Auckland Regional Council to allow it to open up large tracts of greenfields space in the north of the city to overcome a shortage of commercial and industrial land in West Auckland.

In formal submissions to the ARC, the council says it will also encourage the more intensive use of existing business-zoned property.

Waitakere City, comprising the wards of Massey, New Lynn, Henderson and Waitakere, is New Zealand's fifth largest city, with a population of close to 200,000 people growing at almost four times the national average.

The Waitakere economy has performed well in recent years, with the annual growth averaging 4 per cent a year over the last decade. According to the Bureau of Economic Research Limited (BERL), business numbers have increased from 7710 in 1994 to 13,081 in 2004, while the number of people employed in the city grew from 34,821 to 45,828 over the same period,

This growth, however, has presented the city with a number of challenges, says Bayleys Research, in its latest overview of the Waitakere commercial and industrial property market. A growing shortage of land for residential, commercial and industrial development has led to a sharp increase in land values.

While the Waitakere population accounts for 15 per cent of the Auckland region, the city provides only 8 per cent of the jobs, resulting in nearly 60 per cent of the working population leaving the city environs each day.

The daily migration inhibits business growth and clogs roads, impeding business flow into and out of the city, says Bayleys Research analyst Ian Little.

With a view to alleviating these problems, Waitakere City Council has set itself a target of sustaining a workforce of 75,000 by 2016. That will require better use of existing working land and development of vacant land that lies within the existing metropolitan urban limit (MUL) , as well as rezoning of land outside the current limits.

Of Waitakere City's total land area of 36,700ha, only 8192ha falls within the MUL, containing the city's residential and business land. The balance of the city area comprises the Waitakere Ranges and land zoned for rural use.

The council's latest land survey, undertaken towards the end of last year, shows the city's total industrial land inventory to be 495ha, of which only 78ha remains unutilised.

However, much of this vacant land, although zoned for industrial use, is unlikely to be brought to market as it is either being landbanked for possible expansion by current owners or is being put to alternative uses such as vineyards or orchards.

Waitakere City Council estimates the true vacant land total to therefore be only 22ha, with much of it in small, fragmented sites.

There is also virtually no surplus commercial land in the city.

The city is proposing to the ARC some major district plan changes to extend the MUL in three principal areas: Hobsonville Airbase, Hobsonville Village and Massey North/Westgate. All three are located close to motorway interchanges.

Account has been taken of the Hobsonville Airbase area's deep water access and flourishing marine trade in designating about 20ha to a marine industrial precinct.

Additional land is also to be set aside for marine industry support activities and the development of a ferry terminal and affordable housing are included in plans for the area.

Within the Hobsonville Village and Massey North areas, industrial land is to be set aside to encourage local employment.

The Massey North and Westgate employment special area will provide about 60ha of additional industrial land as well as retail and commercial opportunities. A further 25ha is to be set aside within the Hobsonville Village area to encourage light industry which will benefit from easy access to the Brigham Creek Rd motorway off-ramp.

Within the more established industrial area of Lincoln Rd, the council is attempting to bring some potentially vacant land to the market through consultation with owners about future development and acting as go-between with potential investors. The council is hoping to develop the Henderson Vineyards Business Campus to house progressive, high-tech industries. New infrastructure in the form of link roads is proposed and will be built as development of the park progresses.

The council is looking to New Lynn for an increase in commercially zoned land of 27ha by creating an expanded commercial centre.

The proposed intensification and expansion of the New Lynn commercial centre is likely to mean some industrial businesses in prime locations may refocus on commercial operations, says Little.

In Henderson, Waitakere Properties Limited, the council's property development arm, is also undertaking the largest mixed-use development that Waitakere City has seen for nearly two decades. The estimated value of the Waitakere Central Development, located on the 3.5ha former Carter Holt Harvey site on Henderson Valley Rd, is more than $100 million.

The development will include a minimum of two A-grade office and retail buildings, the first of which is to be completed around October, a new civic centre, which will house 600 council staff, a civic square and residential and visitor accommodation.

Bayleys Real Estate's Chris Upright, who specialises in the sale and leasing of property in West Auckland, says the council's initiatives are a move in the right direction. In particular, the MUL changes will help reduce the pressure on business land in the short to medium term.

However, longer term more greenfields land near the motorway is likely to have to be rezoned if the council is to continue to attract large businesses and provide more local employment, he says.