Council rejects claim of 300 homes a hectare

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Auckland City councillor Juliet Yates says the council has no plans to implement a tenfold increase in housing intensification put forward by the Auckland Regional Council.

Mrs Yates, who chairs the city development committee, yesterday said the council was looking at building no more than 100 houses a hectare in 19 suburbs targeted for intensification.

This level of intensification would occur near suburban shopping centres. Elsewhere in suburbs the maximum number of houses would be 66, she said.

The typical density of these suburbs is now 20 to 30 houses a hectare.

ARC planners this month said these suburbs would have to be rezoned for 200 to 300 houses a hectare if Auckland City were to accommodate 141,800 more people by 2021.

Mrs Yates said the council wanted to control where high-density development occurred under a new residential 8 zone.

She said the council was required under the Regional Growth Strategy to plan for the projected growth of 141,800 people.

The city development committee had given an assurance that intensified housing would not happen in areas where growth would not improve the residents' quality of life.

The committee decided to monitor development and, if need be, to consider measures such as minimum densities in residential 8 zones. This could lead to a ban on building single houses in selected suburbs, although Mrs Yates doubted the council would take such "draconian" steps.