KEY POINTS:
Some of the new parks which the ARC has bought - Te Arai, Pakiri, Te Rau Puriri and Waitawa - are not officially open to the public.
They do not have the normal park facilities and Ms Coney said future generations would benefit most from these parks, because the aim was to "buy ahead" the coastal land which was becoming scarce.
The council is also sensitive to the fact that many of its parks are a drive of 40 minutes or more from the metropolitan areas where intensive housing development means children play in corridors rather than backyards.
"We have yet to get more green, open space in urban areas as well," said Ms Coney.
To compensate, the ARC chipped in $2 million towards the Chelsea Park Trust's co-operative move to provide Auckland's newest open-space urban park, on the North Shore waterfront.
On the ARC agenda is urban park space in the redevelopment of the tank farm on Auckland City's waterfront.
Ms Coney said: "Parks have an economic value because they contribute to the lifestyle which will attract people with skills, from polluted cities to Auckland."
