Why intensifying our cities will hurt

Wednesday, 10 June 2015

After buying their house in the quiet leafy suburb of Northcote Point three years ago, Erica Hannam and her husband Richard Tout were shocked to find Auckland's SkyPath was going to be virtually on their doorstep.

They had no notion when they bought the house that it was coming. The idea of a walkway attached to the Harbour Bridge was just a notion at that stage among cycling enthusiasts.

Hannam says if they had known, they never would have moved in.

She says she's got no beef with the actual project,  but with the parking and privacy issues that a Skypath terminal at the end of a narrow cul-de-sac is likely to produce. 

If the forecasts are correct, the Skypath could attract 8500 people daily in its first year alone.

'How would you feel if you had 8500 people walking past your front door and your little tiny low fence every day?'

Hannam is opposing the SkyPath's resource consent, hearings for which were held earlier this month .

If the concerns about parking and loss of privacy could be addressed, would she feel differently?

Hannam answers that by saying there's a much wider debate here at stake.

'The council should be open and transparent about this sort of thing…Let's be very clear what the intent is and if the zoning rules reflect it, we could all understand it, but trying to do it by stealth is not fair.'

NIMBY

Auckland's rapid growth means there's no escaping the need for better infrastructure - rail, roads, walkways and utilities.

Inevitably, people will be inconvenienced, or worse, raising the whole issue of what's good for the city and the rights of the individual.

To those who believe the city's good has to outweigh all else, opponents are NIMBYs - advocates of  'Not In My Back Yard'. To those affected, their democratic rights have to count for something.

And when it comes to Auckland's lack of new housing, even Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler has views.

Wheeler told a Parliamentary select committee  earlier this year that he feared new houses were not being built quickly enough, and that those that were were too far out.

'I think work needs to be done in inner Auckland in addressing the height restrictions and the not-in-my-back-yard syndrome that's there.'

Wheeler was likely referring to Auckland's proposed unitary plan which critics say was heavily watered down.

Town centres such as Takapuna and Mt Roskill, close to transport nodes, have been pegged for higher buildings, but a householder revolt in 2013 ahead of local body elections brought some of the height restrictions down.

Democracy at work, or NIMBYism? Property Council chief executive Connal Townsend believes the council 'wimped out'.

If the proposed plan goes ahead in 2017, he says, developers will find it virtually impossible in those areas to get within a kilometre of the town centre's amenities.

HERITAGE WOES

And it is not just about heights of apartment blocks. According to Townsend, heritage lobbyists had made it difficult to demolish buildings built before 1944. Protecting views of harbours and volcanic cones are all well and good, 'as long as one realises every time you protect a view shaft, you're shaving off homes'. And minimum section sizes are not conducive in many places to terraced housing.

That last point does the most damage in terms of density, says Townsend, because once new housing is built, it takes a generation to change.

'The land that would have been available for the Mayor's vision in terms of density is now being gobbled up by standalone bungalows, rather than terraced housing and apartments.'

The signal developers pick up from all this is that it is better to pursue undeveloped, 'greenfields' housing. 'So you've sent an instant signal that we don't want you to do density, but we want you to do density.'

Auckland Council's chief economist Chris Parker stirred the pot in March when he warned that the city ultimately put the economy at risk if it did not allow intensification close to the CBD.

Auckland was characterised by high land prices and comparatively affordable rents and that was a market signal that existing land needed to be used differently.

'If land use regulations prevent this, then land will become less valuable and the risk of a major price correction becomes more real.'

Intensification not only increased supply, it  gave land owners a greater yield on their investment because they could have more dwellings on a site, said Parker.

'Allowing land to generate more cashflow closes the disconnect between land prices and rents. More dwellings per site in the central area will ease the housing supply, and house price issues because more dwellings share the cost of land. This helps keep the dream of home ownership alive for younger generations.'

Parker said the Proposed Urban Plan, while better than the district plans that had gone before. needed more.

It allowed greater reuse of land within urban limits and for development beyond the city limits. But 'one could have expected higher densities and more height in areas near the city centre',

'Intensification doesn't have to be a dirty word. By being a design-led city, Auckland can build value into intensification, and look and feel like a truly global city.'

FOREIGN LESSONS

One place Auckland's planners have been looking is Vancouver, a city often considered one of the most liveable cities in the world but which is also known for its towering apartment blocks.

Joe Hruda, a Vancouver design expert brought in to help with the apartments of Alexandra Park, agrees density need not be feared.

'It brings with it greater diversity in housing choices, quality public gathering spaces and services such as a grocer, cafes and shops - all characteristics of a true urban village.'

On a recent visit, Hruda explained Vancouver's 'gentle density' policies, which included shaping buildings 'so sunlight is not lost on streets and parks.' Views to surrounding parkland and open spaces were preserved and pedestrian-friendly streets had entrances and courtyards oriented to the street, making streets a safe place.

Most importantly, the denser 'villages' that Vancouver created meant existing neighbours could 'remain untouched and respected'.

It sounds similar to the town centres that Auckland Council are seeking to build up, one that Martin Dunn, the founder of apartment real estate agency, City Sales, supports.

He lives in Milford and predicts the rush of new apartments expected there will make it very trendy.

'But all of the older people in Milford are horrified and they're screaming not in my backyard,

'I do feel myself that if one thing that this hated Auckland council has done right, it's restricting the growth of Auckland to 70 per cent of the existing boundaries…They're going to keep our green belt and we're going to intensify, but the intensification of the suburbs of Auckland brings about infrastructure change.

'That's how all big cities grow and that allows for rail and then other good things to happen. It actually brings about what I call culture change in the suburbs.'

* The density debate is expected to be at the forefront of the Productivity Commission's next report, on land supply and regulation, due out on Wednesday

The Wellington Story

Outside Auckland other cities are also preparing for intensification, albeit of a more low-rise nature.

Wellington's inner city already has a healthy number of high-rise apartment buildings, but in suburbs the council has opted for width rather than height.

Its preference is 'medium-density' which means single houses on smaller lots, townhouses, terraced houses and apartments around three or four storeys.

While Wellington does not have the same migration pressures as Auckland, it is preparing itself for a moderate rise in population over the next 30 years.

Warren Ulusele, the city council's manager of urban development, says about 50,000 more people are expected to settle in central Wellington over that time, and its hilly, constrained geography has made land expensive, so intensification is a must.

So far only two outer suburbs, Johnsonville and Kilbirnie, are zoned for medium intensification, and public consultation is still being done around Tawa and Karori.

Picking areas with enough infrastructure to handle extra population is very important, says fellow urban planner Lucie Derosiers.

'Within walking distance of the heart of the town centre, where you've got all of the community services, is where we're mostly looking.'

Naturally there have been some people concerned about a hodge podge of infilled sections, and Ulusele says quality designs and additional spending on infrastructure will be the key.

However, the council's aspirations have not been without opposition. In Johnsonville, planners wanted to encourage developers to span several sections and avoid the poor examples of the past.

But they were taken to the Environment Court by a group of residents concerned about loss of character and privacy.

Because many of the local developers are smaller scale firms, Johnsonville's intensification is expected to end up as multiple units on large single sites, rather than amalgamated sites.

While Ulusele says it's 'early days' for most developers, his chief concern is that the city is not one-size-fits-all.

'As a city we need to ensure we have choices for our residents.'