KEY POINTS:
Overseas experts will be used to help overhaul rules for property development and other activities on the Auckland isthmus.
The review of the 1993 Isthmus District Plan was announced yesterday by Auckland City Council, which says it needs to bring in experts from international cities to guide councillors' thinking.
"The review could have implications for hundreds of thousands of residents and ratepayers," said planning chairwoman Glenda Fryer. "It is all about how we shape the future of where we live, work and play."
Mrs Fryer said the plan, which contained the planning policies and rules for activities and development issues, was publicly notified in 1993 and after public scrutiny and legal challenges became operative in 1999.
By law, the council must review the plan every decade, which means the work must be completed so a successor can be notified by 2010.
Mrs Fryer said issues which the council review team needed to take into account included:
* Changes to the Resource Management Act.
* Continuing emphasis on urban design, sustainability and heritage.
* Management and form of growth.
"Part of the process is to review best practice in urban planning in cities around the world and we will be inviting experts to speak to us from cities such as Vancouver, where they are facing similar issues to ours."
The plan was introduced when Les Mills was mayor and before the introduction of the Resource Management Act.
It was in force ahead of the Auckland Regional Growth Strategy, which required 70 per cent of Auckland's growth to go into existing urban areas.
The plan has incorporated more than 200 changes. "As time goes on and new things are grafted on, it's become less user-friendly," said planning consultant Duncan McKenzie.
"It was one of the first district plans to become operative and now it's showing its age."
The plan came under fire from urban designers for allowing rows of terraced apartments to spring up on business-zoned land without adequate controls over building density, privacy, and noise nuisance.
Only last year, a change in the plan was called for to allow schools to hold community events and hire out their facilities - something which they had done unofficially for years.
Controversial plan changes have included provision for mixed-use zones, allowing homes to be built in the former Mt Wellington Quarry and a more intensive use of state housing land at Talbot Park in Glen Innes.
Bids to copy the Talbot Park redevelopment elsewhere on the isthmus planning map are likely to come during the plan review.
Review working party member councillor Christine Caughey said last night that the plan had served Auckland well.
"But it represents 20th-century thinking and it's time to move into a new mindset for the challenges facing the city."
Mrs Caughey said the review must look for weaknesses in the plan and environmentally sustainable ways to handle growth and encourage investment.
With climate change, it also had to look at protecting citizens and property from inundation and flash floods and the working party would seek expert scientific advice, she said.
