The Government and Auckland Council are proposing changing zoning laws to allow buildings that are 10 storeys or even higher to be built in the Auckland suburb of Mt Albert, and buildings of 15 storeys or more in the suburbs of Kingsland, Morningside and Mt Eden.
The new height rules will be incorporated into the Resource Management (Consenting and Other Matters) Amendment Bill to allow greater density of housing development around key train stations that will be part of the City Rail Link when it opens next year.
The changes will allow buildings of 15 storeys or higher to be built around the Maungawhau (Mt Eden), Kingsland and Morningside stations and at least 10 storeys high around the Mt Albert station, which is adjacent to the suburb's main shopping strip, and the Baldwin Ave station, which is the next stop on the line heading towards the CBD.
The changes were jointly announced by Housing and RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop, Minister for Auckland Simeon Brown and Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown.
The new higher density zoning will apply to land within "a reasonable walking distance" of those stations.
"The Government is determined to fix our housing crisis and a key step toward that is by building housing around high quality public transport," Bishop and Simeon Brown said in a joint statement.
"Once this law is passed, we can get on with intensification," Wayne Brown said.
"We've now fixed the city centre and rapid transit corridors, and I look forward to working with the Government to make sure we deliver growth in the right places for the rest of the region," the Mayor said.
10 Comments
Surprised this isn't already a thing. Good idea in my opinion.
Agreed. Pretty sure there is a zone for it.
This is progress. I could never understand why there were apartments near train stations in Melbourne and Sydney but not Auckland - a great move
True, but just build them right. The long list of leaky home and similar faults , and plenty of those high rise complex, that have been constructed has been a national embarrassment, an indictment on NZ’s credibility as a well regulated and operative building industry.
Many Sydney also crap builds cracking in walls and floors
Florida too. One calm and normal morning, the entire frontage falls onto the street. Either way there is no possible excuse except to say that it is something habitual for NZ to view other parts of the world with a holier than thou attitude, but with scarce credence.
Not only building them properly. I get the feeling they will be designed to to take advantage of the scrapping of the mandated minimum size requirement, so there will be little thought given to making them even slightly appealing.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/housing-rule-changes-how-small-is-too-sma…
If that happens, then it's more likely they'll turn in to rentals or have a high turn over of owners - not conducive to any kind of community - so insta-slums if there's not measures like requiring owner-occupancy, minimum sizes and the local ability to have a life outside the apartment.
A good start, but still only a small number of stations on a big network - are they brave enough to do the same for Parnell, Remuera, Meadowbank, Greenlane etc.? Or are they too affluent...
Better late than never, would have thought it had been in place for a decade or more.
I wonder if there are going to be controls on how poor the design can be?
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