Plan Change 120 targets the wrong suburbs to create affordable housing - Helen Clark

Along with more than 20,000 other Aucklanders, I live in what is known as a character home, a house which has been identified for a long time as one of a number of special heritage properties.

These homes are generally built of kauri and are only found in New Zealand.

Under the 2016 Auckland Unitary Plan (AUP), our homes are in Special Character areas (SCAs).

These protect the villa-lined streetscapes of Ponsonby, the bungalows of Mt Eden and the workers’ cottages of Freemans Bay and Grey Lynn and more.

Currently, these properties can’t be pulled down, and owners need a Resource Consent to alter them. The AUP recognises they are unique and that where we live is special.

But late last year Auckland Council changed everything with Plan Change 120, a proposed change to the Unitary Plan required by the Government.

This was to allow capacity for 2,000,000 more housing units for the city.

It would amend the Unitary Plan by removing or reducing many of our SCAs and allowing apartment blocks 15 storeys high in them.

Over the last six months, the Government has reduced that number to 1,400,000 housing units.

Special Character homes, however, have remained a target of this new intensification, with the proposed loss of 4735 of them, reducing the numbers protected from 20,466 to 15,731.

The main losers will be in the Waitemāta, Ōrākei and Albert-Eden local board areas. Some Special Character areas will lose a few houses, while other SCAs will be removed completely.

In 2022, Council estimated that in the Unitary Plan, SCAs covered merely 3.6% of all residential-zoned land and just 0.3% of the council’s total land area (an area of only 14.8km).

Removing these SCAs would dismiss their heritage significance.

They encompass a broad variety of eras, styles, materials, and building use from the city’s history. They are not just any collection of old buildings.

They are living records of Auckland’s development, shaped by waves of migration, economic change, and architectural innovation.

The kauri villas of the late 19th century, the Californian bungalows of the inter-war years, and the modest workers’ cottages tell stories about who we were and how we lived.

A recent report by postgraduate Auckland University student Joshua Howie on Auckland’s SCAs found that Auckland was exceptional in “the scale and consistency of its areas of ornate timber colonial architecture” even when compared to Melbourne and Brisbane, cities known for their heritage buildings.

He found this architecture and its streetscapes are endemic to Auckland, and unique globally.

“Auckland’s Special Character Areas encompass a rare gem in global urbanism, a taonga – a collection of documented and protected timber architecture from the 19th and 20th centuries unrivalled worldwide in scale and quality.”

SCAs have become the target of PC120 because many of them are within what council deems “walkable catchments” of transport hubs, such as railway stations, rapid busways, and town centres.

Yet in many of these areas, the infrastructure is old and cannot cope with more development. Schools are full. When wastewater and stormwater overflow from ailing pipes, streets risk flooding.

There are not enough green spaces.

Auckland needs housing where there is infrastructure to support it.

It should be planned so that townhouses and apartments complement, don’t overwhelm, character streets.

PC120 would land most of the intensification inside 10km of the city centre. While affordable housing must be the goal of future planning, these areas are not where people who need an affordable home can, or perhaps even want to, buy.

Auckland is a collection of metropolitan centres, including Takapuna, Henderson, and Manukau, and people want to live and work near them just as much, or more than, the central city.

I strongly support the Character Coalition’s position of opposition to PC120.

Our choice is simple.

We can build a city that grows while honouring its past, or end up with one that grows by erasing it.

For Auckland, the answer should be clear. Council must amend Plan Change 120 now to respect our heritage.

Our character areas must be kept for future generations to enjoy.

Helen Clark served three successive terms as Prime Minister of New Zealand between 1999 and 2008. She was also the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme for two terms from 2009 to 2017.

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