Supercity intensification plan gets a temporary reprieve

Tuesday, 16 September 2025

Auckland’s councillors have been given something of a concession by RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop over sweeping new plans for intensification.

It follows a legislated requirement for Auckland Council to come up with a zoning plan for 2 million additional homes in the supercity by October 10 - an issue which has prompted tense debates amid the local election about where and how to add to the city’s housing stock over the next 30 years.

While the council is still required to notify the public of its proposed plan change by deadline, Bishop gave his assurances on Tuesday that the council would be given the time to allow the public to have its say.

In a letter to Mayor Wayne Brown and councillor Richard Hills, Bishop said he was looking at setting an 18-month timeframe for the process.

This would allow for the public to make submissions on a notified plan change between November 3 and December 19 - as requested by the council - and provide over a year for an appointed panel to consider the feedback. Bishop said it would be appropriate for hearings on the plan change to be heard before an independent panel of experts.

“This will give certainty to Aucklanders after years of delay and uncertainty but also makes sure the [hearing panel] has a good chance to do its work and consider the – doubtless – many submissions,” Bishop said in a statement.

Mayor Brown called it a “pragmatic” decision.

“This is another round in ‘RMA Gymnastics’, but it’s good to see Minister Bishop is bringing common sense to the process and supports Aucklanders having their say to help shape their city,” Brown said.

He said it would allow for a “rational discussion about how and where we live, based on facts”.

The plan change and the speed at which it is required to be implemented has been a controversial topic of debate at meetings across the city as local elections ramp up.

Albert-Eden councillor Christine Fletcher previously called it a poisoned chalice.

Auckland Council was seeking a plan change - but its goal was to avoid Medium Density Residential Standards (three dwellings of three storeys by right) and “downzone” flood prone areas.

But, Bishop has maintained that Auckland must zone for 30 years of growth to improve supply and consequently make housing more affordable.

The council quietly released maps on its website in September showing where it proposed zoning for new housing, and much of it involves allowing townhouses and apartments in the central suburbs.

This caused backlash among owners of ‘character’ housing, and criticisms from Epsom MP David Seymour that infrastructure in the older central parts of the city would not be able to cater for such growth.

For some the concession has not gone far enough - Sally Hughes of the Character Coalition said the question remained: “Why do we need that level of intensification all at once?”.

“We don’t need the potential for 2 million properties all at once.”

Hughes argued for “staged intensification”.

“There’s a whole derelict shopping centre down the bottom end of Dominion Road [in Mt Roskill] … that could be great apartment buildings with commercial properties underneath.

“If the community had felt that it had had a say about where the intensification went, there wouldn't have been all these angry meetings and all this upset.”

Hughes said the decision to appoint panels and hold hearings was a win for “people power”, with suburban residents having made it “patently obvious how unhappy they were” with Bishop.

“But it hasn’t won completely,” she added.

“In suburbs with a lot of villas and family homes there will still be the potential for that pepper potting and high rise buildings just plonked in the middle of a suburban street where people have lived for many years.”

“That is still possible with the amount of intensification that the Government is requiring all at once.”

Councillors will vote on notifying the proposed plan on September 24.