Shape of Flat Bush's future mapped out

Bruce Harland is relishing the rare chance to be part of planning a new town such as Flat Bush. Picture / Dean Purcell

A remarkably detailed master plan for the new town centre of Flat Bush in Manukau City is almost complete.

The final version, developed after much consultation, is due to be with the Manukau City Council, which owns the land, this month.

It aims to avoid as many of the mistakes that have beset other urban developments as possible.

The 18ha site is still in paddocks but within a decade or so it will house about 40,000 people. Bruce Harland, Manukau City's manager of design and development at Flat Bush, describes the project to build an entirely new town centre as an extremely rare opportunity.

Flat Bush, the last greenfields development in urban Auckland, has been talked about for eight years, giving planners time to consider what they would like to do differently. As a result it will not be like the closed-in mall at Manukau City Centre or the mass of shops and carparks at the Botany Downs mega retail centre.

However, the urban design master plan is not just about buildings.

It is an integrated planning exercise involving John Coop of the Auckland architecture firm Warren and Mahoney, architect and urban designer Paul Jones, of Jones Coulter Young in Perth and Rachel de Lambert, landscape architect with Auckland firm Boffa Miskell.

The plan sets the street layout and includes detailed guidelines, including where various activities should be relative to one another.

Cycleways will be installed from the beginning and services in the town centre are designed to encourage walking and less use of cars.

The town centre will lie on the eastern boundary of the 92ha Barry Curtis Park, which the Manukau Council is developing at a cost of $32 million over the next 10 years.

The council has already committed to building a library, swimming pool and recreation centre and future schools planned for the area will be a short distance away from the town centre.

The plan aims to make sure people have an open outlook to the street, with no dark corners to hide troublemakers.

The spaces between the buildings will be landscaped, and trees will be planted and buildings placed to offer shade and protection from the prevailing wind. Natural gullies and streams will be enhanced rather than being piped underground, which has often happened elsewhere.

Architect and urban designer Paul Jones, of Jones Coulter Young, in Perth, said modern urban planning meant three levels sustainability - social, environment and economic.

Getting it right, he said, had to be a balancing act.

Development that was purely commercial was "like a one-legged stool".

"A development can be economic but not environmentally sustainable and not energy efficient," he says. "But then again, this Flat Bush development has to produce a profit."

Mr Jones said the master plan needed to be strong to make sure the guidelines were followed. But it should still be adaptable for changing circumstances.

Some people doubt whether such a particular approach will work, but Mr Jones said overseas experience showed many developers liked the certainty.

"All the things we are talking about doing now are tried and well-proven. Maybe not in New Zealand but certainly overseas."

And Manukau City planners hope they will help set a standard for development elsewhere in the city.