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.
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