Public policy think tank the New Zealand Initiative says the "compact city ideology" often actually makes problems it's proponents want to solve such as high house prices, congestion, and declining liveability, worse, and councils are better off freeing up land supply for housing.
These comments come as the NZ Initiative issues a report entitled Up or Out? Examining the Trade-offs of Urban Form. The NZ Initiative argues the evidence is obvious in Auckland where urban development limits and building restrictions have significantly contributed to high land prices, and notes councils in both Wellington and Tauranga seem to have missed the link between land supply and housing affordability. Instead, they're pursuing "compact city agendas" that favour building up instead of out.
"The compact city ideology is built on the belief that cities should be sustainable in their use of resources. These policies take many forms, but are principally concerned with restricting the outwards spread of the urban footprint," NZ Initiative executive director Oliver Hartwich says.
"In short, compact cities seek to build up, instead of out. Yet an international examination of the historical and academic record shows this planning ideology failed to deliver any meaningful improvements on these measures, and in many cases exacerbated the problems it sought to solve."
“The evidence is plain to see, especially in places like Auckland, where urban development limits and building restrictions have significantly contributed to the price of land. Yet many councils, like Tauranga and Wellington, appear to have missed the link between land supply and housing affordability, and are pursuing their own compact city agendas," says Hartwich.
The NZ Initiative argues the compact city ideology's focus on high public transit investment is unlikely to make a meaningfully reduction to traffic congestion because of the appeal private vehicles have to the likes of working parents and people who don't work in the central business district.
"Furthermore, evidence cited in the report by the US Environmental Protection Agency shows a strong relationship between high population densities, traffic, and pollution concentrations. We’ve seen the same trend of high house prices and congestion again and again when examining the track record of compact cities,” says Hartwich.
“These are facts that are hardly ever discussed by city officials when they take their development strategies to voters, which are instead coached ‘clean-green’ platitudes. We hope this report will change that.”
The NZ Initiative also says its report found that:
Zoning restrictions have been quantifiably shown to increase land supply shortages and dramatically reduce housing affordability.
New Zealand’s main cities are characterised by severely unaffordable housing markets.
Far less restrictive planning regimes in the United States and Europe have consistently nurtured affordable housing markets for decades.
US cities that have chosen to pursue compact development strategies tend to be more congested than dispersed urban environments (urban areas in North America most resemble New Zealand cities).
There is a weak relationship between high population densities and low obesity rates.
Topology and climate have a bigger influence over walking and cycling activity levels than urban form.
Quantitative research in Vancouver, a compact city, shows urban areas with high walkability are exposed to significantly higher primary pollutants than suburban areas.
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