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Plans, policies and reports
Plans, policies and reports

Development with vision - council's property role

Overview | Statement of proposal | Policy

Policy

Background | Objectives | Strategic context | Enhanced property role for council | Monitoring and review

Background

Auckland City's vision for Auckland is for a quality urban city with vibrant local communities and a people-focused revitalised city centre. Our Growth Management Strategy provides for a compact city that caters for economic and population growth. For this vision and strategy to be successful and sustainable, there is a need for high quality urban development.

Since late 2003, we have been considering how we could play a more active role in facilitating high quality property and urban development within Auckland city. In March 2004, we released our Development with Vision proposal for public consultation. This proposal set out a range of possible options to enhance our property role. These options included using the available regulatory tools more effectively, enhancing our property role on a case-by-case basis, developing an ongoing enhanced property role and establishing a full property development role.

After careful consideration of the public submissions received in relation to this proposal, we adopted a new policy called Development with Vision. This policy is the mechanism for implementing our vision for achieving a high quality urban environment and combines two of the consultation options, namely using regulatory tools more effectively and developing an ongoing enhanced property role.

Objectives

Some of the key objectives for adopting this policy include:

  • ensuring high quality development in the city which:
    • reflects the unique character of Auckland and the surrounding neighbourhood
    • demonstrates best practice in quality urban development
    • demonstrates best practice in quality urban design and sustainability
    • encourages a choice of transport and provides streets that are active, safe and attractive to pedestrians
    • enables a range of activities, housing types and intensity to support a diverse community; and
    • is environmentally, economically and socially sustainable in the short and long-term
  • achieving the Growth Management Strategy, namely:
    • focusing growth around town centres
    • achieving high quality urban design
    • adopting a coordinated approach to growthincreasing development around public transport corridors; and
    • increasing accessibility to public transport and facilities
  • ensuring the effectiveness of our property investments in delivering environmental, social, cultural and economic well-being.

Strategic context

Our overarching strategic vision is set out in our long-term council community plan. This vision reflects both our and the community's aspirations for the city in the future. In addition to achieving its own strategic vision, Auckland City is committed to furthering a range of local and regional strategies related to growth management, transport and economic development.

The Development with Vision policy has been developed within this policy context and is consistent with the aims and objectives of a number of supporting strategies, including:

  • Auckland Regional Growth Strategy (ARGS)

This strategy has been adopted by all the territorial authorities in the Auckland region as well as the Auckland Regional Council and seeks to manage the region's predicted population growth and ensure the appropriate distribution of housing, employment and transport facilities in order to cope with that growth. Development with Vision supports the ARGS objectives of limiting suburban sprawl, retaining development within the metropolitan urban limits and concentrating growth around existing town centres and transport nodes.

  • Auckland City Central Sector Agreement

This agreement between Auckland City and Auckland Regional Council seeks to manage growth in accordance with the ARGS. Development with Vision supports the key principles of this agreement including

  • focusing growth around identified town centres
  • preparing liveable community plans to revitalise town centres
  • accommodating mixed housing, employment and recreation opportunities
  • and identifying actions and resources required to accommodate growth.
  • Auckland City Urban Living Programme

This programme seeks to manage growth and change in the city. Development with Vision supports a number of the key projects which this programme promotes, including:

  • revitalising the central business district
  • upgrading railway precincts
  • identifying key sites to encourage economic growth and employment.

Enhanced property role for council

Our ability to control development in the city has largely been limited to its regulatory functions and development and maintenance roles, which support existing core council services. In order for council to achieve the outcomes promoted in its growth management strategy, council believed it needed to take a more active and enhanced development role to promote high quality developments, which support urban growth.

A number of options to enhance our property role were considered and following an assessment of those options and consultation with the public, a combined approach of more effectively using the available regulatory tools and developing an enhanced property role was agreed. In relation to developing an enhanced property role, establishing a Property Enterprise Board (PEB) was considered the most effective way for council to achieve the outcomes it sought. The PEB has the responsibility of implementing the Development with Vision policy.

In November 2005, council appointed six external members to the new PEB. The PEB is an enterprise board, which is responsible for the development and delivery of specific property projects and providing an increased focus on commercial, strategic and social objectives for both current and future property holdings. The PEB operates within the council structure and is supported by staff from across the organisation. The board is governed by a Statement of Intent, which includes both commercial and non-commercial objectives and reports to our Finance and Corporate Business committee.

The board's mission is to:

" promote high quality, sustainable urban development throughout Auckland city that supports urban growth, demonstrates best practice in urban design and development and takes into account social, environmental, economic and cultural well-being".

The key roles of the PEB are to:

  • identify opportunities to enhance our existing property portfolio to help us achieve our Development with Vision objectives
  • identify opportunities outside the existing property portfolio for achieving our Development with Vision objectives.

A central part of the PEB's role will be supporting and driving the key growth nodes as identified in our Growth Management Strategy. Growth nodes have been chosen for their critical location, potential for intensification, mix of uses and/or long-term infrastructural capacity to support development. The PEB will seek to deliver urban development consistent with these growth nodes to achieve high quality urban design that supports the growing population.

It is intended that the PEB will focus on strategic sites or projects, which could include:

  • areas that are currently commercially unproven where examples of different types or quality of developments can be set
  • sites which can demonstrate integrated and sustainable development practices
  • sites where there is currently ad hoc market development; or
  • sites with potential for a significant public interface or with specific value to the character of Auckland city.

Potential opportunities, which the PEB may consider to enhance our role in property development, may include:

  • identifying where our existing regulatory powers might be used more effectively
  • investing in land purchases to facilitate new forms of quality urban development
  • consolidating land holdings through the purchase of multiple owned land fragments which can then be made available for development with conditions requiring quality urban development
  • investing in the decontamination of development sites, eg bringing brownfields sites to a state that would enable private development
  • development of urban infrastructure and services, eg train stations
  • making council-owned land available for development with lease or sale conditions that require quality urban development.

Where the PEB selects existing properties or seeks to acquire new properties to achieve its Development with Vision objectives, the following selection criteria will be applied:

  • a location within a growth district as defined by our Growth Management Strategy
  • a key strategic area where it is perceived that private development will undermine or underdevelop the public good aspects of the area
  • the ability of the site or development to create sufficient confidence to engender ongoing private sector investment within the growth district; and
  • unique locations with specific value to the character of Auckland city, where it is desirable that they be protected for future generations.

Monitoring and review

Given the project nature of the PEB's activities, key objectives and performance targets will generally be specified on a case-by-case basis. These will include both financial targets and the delivery of relevant urban design outcomes.

The PEB provides quarterly reports to council's Finance and Corporate Business committee.