Should Auckland’s boundaries be redrawn? Part 1: the splitters
We’ve had a unified Auckland Council since 2010 – it replaced seven district/ city councils and one regional council, in the largest local government restructure in New Zealand since 1989. With such a major, complicated process, it’s a given that it won’t have been perfect: things that could have been done better, and things that should be revisited now that we’re seven years on.…
93 Comments Development update: June 2017
Winter is a quiet time of year for real estate agents. People tend to hunker down and stay where they are. This has always seemed silly to me – if I’m thinking about moving house, I want to see the new place at its worst.…
The Auckland Housing Accord: SHAm or SHAlvation? (part 2)
In the first part of this post, I talked about how the Housing Accord signed by Auckland Council and the government had two clear goals: “increased housing supply and improved housing affordability”. Those two goals are clearly laid out in the first sentence of the Accord.…
Development update: May 2017/ tourism boom part 2
In the mighty spirit of ’80s metal songs, this post features two slightly different parts separated by a slash symbol. It’s partly a monthly “development update” post, and partly a sequel to a post from 18 months ago about the tourism boom.…
The Auckland Housing Accord: SHAm or SHAlvation? (part 1)
Part one of a two-part post. Part two coming soon!
The Auckland Housing Accord was signed between the Auckland Council and government in October 2013, and ran for three years to the end of September 2016. It allowed for “Special Housing Areas” (SHAs) to be created, with new rules from the notified Unitary Plan, and streamlined consenting processes.…
Development Update: April 2017
Industrial is important
In more than two years of Development Update posts, I’ve hardly ever mentioned industrial development. It’s hard to show in a map like the RCG Development Tracker, so I don’t cover it there.
But even in a modern economy like Auckland, with a strong services base, industrial properties are important.…
The death of coal?
At TransportBlog, we focus on transport and urban issues. However, other topics pop up occasionally. Energy and electricity have always had a link to transport – oil, one of the world’s most versatile energy sources, is mainly turned into petrol or diesel, but it can also be used to create electricity (NZ did this in a small way until the late ’70s).…
Development update: March 2017
I wrote in December that “2016 has been a big year for development” – now that we’re a little bit past the end of the year, it’s actually possible to see how big it was. Still, as the cheese ads say, good things take time.…
Mr. Bridges, open this gate. Mr. Bridges, tear down this wall!
In 1987, President Ronald Reagan stood by the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin and called on Gorbachev, the leader of the Soviet Union, to take down the wall cutting off Berlin’s east and west halves.
A photo of a photo which also includes a photo.…
More jobs in the city centre
However you define Auckland’s “city centre”, it’s been adding jobs rapidly in the last couple of years. Based on a narrow definition – roughly, the area bounded by the motorways – the city centre has hit a new milestone of 100,000 jobs, actually reaching almost 102,000 as at February 2016.…
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