Special Housing Areas (First 10) Announced

 

Earlier today the Housing Minister Dr Nick Smith and Mayor Len Brown announced the first 10 Special Housing Areas under the Housing Accord. Remembering the Housing Accord could be only active once the Unitary Plan had (and is) been notified.

This was the release from the joint-announcement today:

6,000 homes in first batch of Special Housing Areas

Housing Minister Dr Nick Smith and Auckland Mayor Len Brown today announced the first batch of Special Housing Areas that will progressively bring to market 6,000 new homes across the city under the Auckland Housing Accord.

“Land supply is the most critical issue we must address to improve housing supply and affordability in Auckland. This first batch of Special Housing Areas will bring 6,000 sections onto the market and is a significant step towards the Auckland Housing Accord’s target of consenting for 39,000 new homes over three years,” Dr Smith says.

The locations for the 10 Special Housing Areas, in addition to the Weymouth community housing project of 282 homes announced last week, are:

• Addison, Papakura, 500 homes, 32 hectares
• Alexander Crescent, East Tāmaki, 148 homes, 8.1 hectares
• Anselmi Ridge, Pukekohe, 64 homes, 6.8 hectares
• Flat Bush Murphys Road, East Tāmaki, 275 homes, 37.8 hectares
• Flat Bush School Road, East Tāmaki, 300 homes, 7 hectares
• Hobsonville Catalina Precinct and Marine Industry precinct, 1,200 homes, 28.2 hectares
• Huapai Triangle, Kumeu, 2,000 homes, 65.1 hectares
• McWhirter Block, West Harbour, 166 homes, 10.1 hectares
• Orakei, Auckland City, 75 homes, 0.8 hectares
• Wesley College, Pukekohe, 1,000 homes, 277.7 hectares

Dr Smith and Mayor Brown made the announcement at the Huapai Triangle Special Housing Area in Kumeu, which has the capacity to accommodate 2,000 new homes.

…

“There will be requirements across the Special Housing Areas for a proportion of the completed homes to be in the more affordable range. This will vary from 100 per cent in some areas like Weymouth to a smaller proportion in others. The details of these requirements will be resolved with the processing of qualifying developments, as provided for under the Auckland Housing Accord,” Dr Smith says

…

You can read the full article here: http://www.voxy.co.nz/politics/6000-homes-first-batch-special-housing-areas/5/170301

I have already commented on the Weymouth Special Housing Area earlier in my “First Special Housing Accord Development Under Way” post

 

Here are the locations of the Addison and Wesley College/Farm Special Housing Areas:

Addison

 

Wesley College

Notes:

1. The Wesley Farm – now Special Housing Area is the three areas highlighted
2. Proposed Paerata and Drury Stations added
3. Yellow = Future Urban Zone under the notified Unitary Plan with the dashed lines the Rural Urban Boundary

 

Starting with a rough estimate (and this is very rough as infrastructure and other provisions are not included) on how much land allocated per house we get:

• 2,500m2 per house for Wesley College/Farm Special Housing Area
• 300m2 per house in the Addison Special Housing Area

 

Addison Special Housing Area

The Addison Special Housing Area set at 500 homes will join the existing Addison development both already there and under way. Looking at the map I see a “Local Centre” has also been zoned in the area where the SHA is going shrinking down the amount of land available to housing. So we have two choices here:

1. Local Centre stays and we get some Terraced Housing and/or housing potentially above commercial retail/office in the Local Centre zone of the SHA. If so then the Mixed Housing Suburban Zone in the SHA area will need to be changed over to Terraced Housing and Apartment Zone
2. Local Centre disappears and the entire SHA is housing under most likely a change from Mixed Housing Suburban and Mixed Housing Urban zone to accommodate this

Pressure with 500 houses with a potential of 1200 new residents into the area (and around 5 minutes from where I live and travel through) will be increased especially on the transport system in the area. The nearest rail stations are the Takanini and Papakura Stations (Takanini not the best station to access or walk to) and the nearest bus stops on the Great South Road until the new 365 and 371 (pages 29, 36 of the Southern Bus Network Proposal) bus routes are activated by Auckland Transport. Pressure from cars and pedestrians going to and from the Addison Special Housing Area will also put pressure on the dangerous Walters Road Level Road Crossing (there was an accident with a pedestrian and a train yesterday), Airfield Road Level Crossing, Manuroa Road Crossing (bad already with congestion), and other roads in the area that are congested as is.

Our planners, Local Board and Auckland Transport are going to need to be picking up some haste here with some transport projects to support the Addison Special House Area. Manuroa Road and Walters Road Level Crossings will need to be grade separated as soon as possible. Auckland Transport also need to stop quibbling with by the looks of the the $2.86 CRL deluxe package committed to (in-part) which includes funds for grade separation of crossings and build Glenora Road Station within 24 months of today. AT have always said Glenora would not be built until Walters Road was grade separated. Well the funding for grade separation is pretty much committed if the Government sticks to the full package so AT can get going with Glenora Road Station which would serve Addison very nicely

The Takanini/Southern Motorway Interchange has been earmarked for an upgrade by the Government. Hopefully construction can start in 2015 with completion two years later. That interchange not only needs an upgrade but was also a prerequisite to have the Great South Road widened from the interchange right down to (hopefully) the Great South Road/ Walters Road Roundabout. That piece of road will need to be widened with possibly a dedicated peak bus lane each way to help carry the growing amount of people who will travel in that area. I would also be looking at replacing that roundabout with a set of traffic lights before the congestion gets any worse.

Facilities such as job centres (commercial and industrial) are in good supply near the Addison SHA with further land zoned for Local Centre and industrial use near by. What will be interesting though is the urban design concept around the Addison SHA. With the Auckland Urban Design Manual in effect I hope we get to see some quality urban design with the houses and maybe even some well thought out extras like pocket parks to break the sea of housing. You can see the Auckland Design Manual and what it entails here: http://www.aucklanddesignmanual.co.nz/

So I would think the most important question is in light of all this is when is the Addison Special Housing Area development to start at the earliest?

 

Wesley College/Farm Special Housing Area

1000 homes over 277 hectares in the middle of no where with only one road in and out of that area (State Highway 22). Until Paerata Station is built your nearest train station is either Pukekohe or Papakura – both a decent drive away. As I mentioned earlier in this post the amount of land would equate to 2,500m2 per house or just over half an acre. I wonder though what else is planned for inside that Special Housing Area at Wesley College/Farm that sits on the northern end of the Pukekohe/Paerata Future Urban Zone? Is council going to be looking at a new Town Centre and some smaller Neighbour Centres within the 277 hectare development? Are we looking at some light industry near the existing industrial park in Paerata? What about infrastructure that all needs to be built brand spanking new such as:

• Fresh Water pipes
• Waste Water Pipes and possibly that new waste water treatment plant that was mentioned in the earlier Unitary Plan feedback this year
• Storm Water pipes and ponds
• Primary School? (Central Government provision)
• Police and Fire Stations? (Central Government provision)
• Parks
• New Library and Community Centre?
• Roads and bus stops
• The Paerata Station with Park and Ride
• Electricity and Telecommunication provisions (although they are provided by private providers such as Chorus and Counties Power Limited (not Vector as I originally said) as an example)

This SHA parked in the middle of literally no where rather than attached to existing development such as Pukekohe or Drury/Papakura will make this interesting in provision costs for the above. Put it this way you are going to be stung either for the developer passing on costs to the buyer or the buyer stung by long commute times to get any where – or both. The ratepayer through Council also having to provide the infrastructure as well will no undoubtedly be stung as well.

In saying that there is one good thing about the Wesley College/Farm Special Housing Area is that this a blank canvas. If I were a Planner and Urban Designer i would be wrapped (ecstatic) to be assigned alongside the developer in being able to paint on a blank canvas such as the Wesley College Special Housing Area. Not too many Greenfield places like this one were you can apply the best Urban Design/Planning Practices without expensive refits you would find in Brownfield Areas. Then again I would say this after 10 years of Sim City 4 as practice for blank canvas Greenfield development such as the one below:

Yes there are some negatives to the Wesley College Special Housing Area owing it to being in the middle of nowhere rather than next to being latched up to an existing urban fabric. But it has been announced and no use busting a nut over this.

 

Lets get some world-class urban and transport design and planning happening here on this rare large blank canvas. You only have once chance with a Greenfield Area unless you want to do an expensive Brownfield refit like Manukau City Centre is going to need.

Speaking of Manukau, with Addison and Wesley College Special Housing Areas to add around 1500 houses or roughly 2-3000 people between them we also better again get cracking in upgrading Southern Auckland’s Heart…

Auckland Transport Blog should have something on the wider SHA’s either tonight or tomorrow.

Tomorrow I will go back to looking at the Countryside Living Zones in Southern Auckland.