Auckland CBD height restrictions: Plan could add 17,000 homes and 37,000 jobs

Height restrictions may soon be removed from Auckland’s CBD, allowing thousands more people to live and work in the city. 

The public can now have their say on proposals from Resource Management Minister Chris Bishop to enable unlimited height across much of the city, remove tower dimension, minimum frontage-height requirements and floor area ratios. 

Some heritage protections on Karangāhape Rd – known as “non-contributing sites” – will be removed. 

“The prize is significant,” Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said in announcing the changes. 

“Auckland city centre already accounts for around 8% of our GDP, around 6% of our jobs in the country. If it was a region on its own, it would be our 5th biggest economy inside New Zealand. 

“The modelling released today suggests that these changes could support the creation of an additional 37,000 jobs here in the central city. And further lift annual GDP by $1.9 billion a year.” 

About 17,000 new dwellings could be added to the city centre, with over 31,000 more people living in the CBD. 

Bishop said about 37,000 jobs could be created by the changes. 

“When you ask Aucklanders where should Auckland grow, they tend to say, ‘Go hard in the city centre’,” Bishop said. 

The opening of the City Rail Link was the start of the city’s transformation, Bishop and Luxon said. 

Since Sunday, Aucklanders have taken more than 400,000 trips on the train network. 

“The key point is this, if these changes go ahead, it will be a lot easier to have higher buildings in the Auckland city centre, more buildings and it will be more commercially viable to build those buildings ... and it’s more likely that they will happen and therefore more jobs, more homes and more businesses,” Bishop said. 

It comes as poor housing market conditions are being blamed for NZX-listed real estate developer and investor Precinct Properties deferring plans for a $160m apartment scheme on Mt Eden’s Dominion Rd. 

And the “ghost tower” Seascape remains partly finished amid reports a buyer has finally been found. 

Asked whether there was going to be interest in building skyscrapers and whether they’d be commercially viable, Luxon was confident interest would grow. 

“It’s a hugely exciting time for Auckland I think. There are people who have been thinking about the future of the city and where it can be and what it needs to look like in 10 and 20 years’ time.” 

Apartment prices are also falling. 

“There’s a bit going on there, but the experience of cities around the world, you’ve got to create the amenities and you know, when you make life easier with a thing like a CRL, when you actually, you know, create businesses above the ground, when you actually have restaurants above the ground, when you have start-ups that actually want to start up offices and have shared spaces above the ground, all of that stuff will happen,” Luxon said. 

“It’ll take time. It’ll take time to build and change. But actually this is a really exciting city. You can live as a young person close to your work in the city, have a really great city lifestyle, but still access an incredible natural environment right on your doorstep and be engaging in a pretty diverse community.” 

The changes would be made under new regulation-making powers under the Resource Management Act. 

It was first used last year to remove planning rules that were seen to be limiting Eden Park’s ability to host major events. 

Auckland Council supports the move. 

Mayor Wayne Brown said Auckland needed to intensify in the right places. 

“That means enabling more homes and businesses close to rapid transit, jobs and existing infrastructure,” Brown said. 

“I welcome the Government’s moves to unlock more housing capacity in Auckland’s city centre, get rid of heritage protections from non-heritage buildings on Karangāhape Rd and remove seismic constraints. Now I look forward to the Government tackling other planning controls in the future, such as fire rules. 

“We have invested billions of dollars in the City Rail Link and in the roads, pipes and other infrastructure that supports the central city. Our planning rules should help us get the best possible return from that investment.” 

Desley Simpson Deputy Mayor of Auckland, RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Rt Hon Christopher Luxon Prime Minister. Herald //Michael Craig 

The Government admitted a more joined-up approach was needed when considering other infrastructure requirements, such as new schools, when building more homes. 

“We’re doing quite a bit of work around that at the moment actually,” Bishop said. 

“Central government frankly has done a poor job over many years going back, not just over the last few years, but actually stretching right back many years at co-ordinating that stuff. 

“We’re building a city the size of Lower Hutt over the next 20 years in Drury. The train stations are going in and that’s fantastic. 

“But generally, it hasn’t been as co-ordinated as we would like. We’re actually doing some quite deep thinking around it because you do have to co-ordinate the schools and the hospitals and, you know, typically what happens is the Government turns up and buys the land for a school later at vast expense, when they could have got ahead of the game and bought the land or designated the land ahead of time and then master-planned around the land.” 

Bishop said more details around that issue would be released at a later point. 

The Auckland Deal would also help Auckland Council and government work together in a more joined-up fashion, the pair said. 

Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson said that in every other city, the CBD was at its heart. 

“The CRL shouldn’t have just been a transport project. It should’ve been a precinct-based project. 

“We’ve worked really hard to give some fantastic urban design in our open space. You’ve got the Domain five minutes up the road. You’ve got Albert Park. 

“The way people can recreate if they’re apartment dwellers, I think is ably catered for in the central city. It’s been haemorrhaging for a long time. It’s been ill. It’s been cut. But now the operation’s over. It’s healing well, and it’s really about time to shine.” 

Heart of the City, the organisation representing central city businesses, said it wasn’t commenting on policies this close to the election. 

Public consultation on the proposed changes will run from September 18 until Friday, October 16. 

Katie Bradford is a Senior Correspondent at the Herald. She has been a broadcast journalist for over 20 years and was based in the press gallery for 10 years. She specialises in politics, business and Auckland issues.