Special Housing Areas a con?
Last year the government and the Auckland Council announced a housing accord that would designate areas within Auckland as Special Housing Areas in which the council would offer a fast tracked consenting process for developers subject to certain conditions. It was touted as a way to address the increasing cost of building new houses in response to rapidly escalating house prices.…
34 Comments Making the CFN a reality
We were quite excited last week to see the Congestion Free Network essentially adopted by the Green Party as part of their Auckland transport policy for the upcoming election. The CFN was created with the express purpose of outlining a vision for Auckland’s transport future that was truly transformational, yet also more affordable than the oversize and ineffective Integrated Transport Programme prepared by Auckland Transport.…
Apartment Design Competition Winner Announced
The winner of the apartment design competition was announced today as S3 Architects. There will be 25 apartments on just a 325m² site – something that in some parts of Auckland is smaller than the minimum lot size for a single house.…
Stuart’s 100 #11: Teenagers in the City
11: Teenagers in the City What if teenagers had more independence and freedom in this city?
This to me, is one of the more important social changes we can expect for Auckland life from current and future changes to our public transport network in Auckland.…
Supporting Cycling in Northcote
Debate in Northcote seems to be raging about the proposed walking and cycling improvements with most of the focus being about the removal of car parks on Queen St in Northcote. Interestingly I came across this blog post from November 2010 by a politician who lives in the area and who is encouraging locals to fight the proposal.…
The Wellesley St Busway
One of the most exciting projects in the City East West Transport Study (CEWT) is the addition of a busway through the central section of Wellesley St – which is defined as between Kitchener St and Albert St.
The central section of Wellesley Street near the Queen Street core contains a number of key cultural facilities including the Civic and St James Theatres, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland Central City Library and also intersects with the Elliot Street shared space and connections through to Aotea Square.…
Postcard from Downtown Los Angeles
We’re going to need to re-inhabit and rehabilitate our cities and our urban neighborhoods whether we like it or not, because the suburbs are bankrupting our culture, economically, ecologically, socially, and spiritually. – James Howard Kunstler
On a recent west coast (US) whistle stop tour I took a couple of days to check out Downtown Los Angeles.…
Wellington and Christchurch Patronage
We keep a close eye on patronage in Auckland – which has been surging in recent months – but what’s happening with patronage in our other major cities? So in this post I’ll look at patronage in both Wellington and Christchurch.…
Attracting families to the city centre
The 2013 Census results showed very strong population growth in Auckland’s city centre. The four census area units of Auckland Harbourside, Auckland Central West, Auckland Central East and Newton grew from 19,116 usual residents in 2006 to just under 28,000 in the 2013 census.…
Top 5 chosen in Apartment Design Competion
Back in May when the last group of special housing areas were announced the Council also announced that they would be holding an apartment building design competition in conjunction with Ockham Residential – builders of The Issac and a number of other developments – who would then build the winning design.…
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