Auckland's Aspirational New Plan Revealed

The Auckland Council has released the Draft Auckland Plan, which is intended to provide a guide for the region's growth and development over the next 30 years.  It is accompanied by a:

• Draft Economic Development Strategy focussed on improving Auckland's economic performance and global competitiveness

• Draft Auckland City Centre Master Plan intended to improve the City Centre's potential, and

• Draft Waterfront Plan focussing on Auckland's waterfront and harbour.

Fortunately these extensive documents are summarised in a document boldly titled Creating the World's Most Liveable City for those unwilling or too time deprived to read all four complete Drafts.

It is the ambitious and aspirational objective of the Draft Auckland Plan to make Auckland the world's most liveable city by 2040.  Within that period the region will have to prepare to accommodate an additional 1 million people and 400,000 dwellings.  In order to achieve this the Draft Auckland Plan notes that transformational shifts will be required in the areas of:

• education for children and young people
• environmental action
• public transport
• the quality of urban living, and
• an improvement in living standards for all Aucklanders.

The Draft Auckland Plan, once adopted, will be implemented through the Auckland Unitary Plan (due out in 2012), as well as Area Plans, core strategies, Local Board Plans and the Long-term Plan. 

Submissions can be made on all four of the Draft Plans just released until 4.00pm on Tuesday, 25 October 2011.  For a copy of the executive summary and each of the Draft Plans click here.

The Draft Auckland Plan, otherwise known as the spatial plan for Auckland, is a requirement of sections 79 and 80 of the Local Government (Auckland Council) Act 2009, and as such has no statutory equivalent elsewhere in New Zealand.  Nor is there at present any requirement that it be given effect to in the development of the Auckland Unitary Plan.  Even so, it is expected to guide planning decisions in Auckland now and in the future, and is a model that other local authorities may wish to consider adopting.

Our primary Local Government contacts are:

Pdf version

Our Local Government Services

Last updated: 26 September 2011

The contents of this publication are general in nature and are not intended to serve as a substitute for legal advice on a specific matter. In the absence of such advice no responsibility is accepted by Brookfields for reliance on any of the information provided in this publication.