Strong Growth in Auckland

Written by Ben Ross - Talking Auckland

Strong Historic Growth and Continuing

 

Transport Blog had blogged earlier in the day strong growth in the Auckland Isthmus and CBD. You can see the post here: “Strong employment growth in the central city.”

Here are two of the tables pointing the growth or decline in the areas of Auckland:

Auckland Employment Breakdown 2000-2013

Auckland Employment Breakdown Change 2000-2013

Areas defined:

  • Rural Northwest – Rural areas and towns to the North and west outside the main Auckland Urban area. This includes the likes of Huapai and Warkworth.
  • Hibiscus – The urban area of Orewa, Silverdale and the Whangaparaoa Peninsula.
  • North Shore – The old North Shore City Council area.
  • West Auckland – The urban parts of the old Waitakere City Council area.
  • Central City – The CBD and neighbouring fringe suburbs like Freemans Bay, Ponsonby, Grey Lynn, Eden Terrace, Grafton, Newmarket and Parnell.
  • Other Isthmus – The old Auckland City council area outside of the Central City.
  • South Auckland – The urban areas of the old Manukau City and Papakura District council areas.
  • Rural Southeast – The rural areas and towns in the South and East of Auckland including Pukekohe.

Source and Credit: Transport Blog (accessed 2013) http://transportblog.co.nz/2013/11/07/strong-employment-growth-in-the-central-city/

 

What those tables do show and is expected that the primary CBD and surrounding areas of the Central Isthmus show strong growth patterns in a strong economy. You can also see North Shore doing well owing to better connections (the Busway) to the CBD and more intensified development around Albany and Smales Farm.

The area that made me smile though was South Auckland with its very strong growth – although some blips along the way. Those blips including that the growth has not been universal and some areas have declined as noted by Transport Blog. South Auckland is ranked third in job centre/employment numbers and will stay that way for a while.

 

For those paying attention to the South (yeah okay we were not meant to compete against the CBD) Manukau has two tower cranes and a mobile crane in the area while Takanini picked up a tower crane in the new industrial area as that area develops at full pace. My “South Auckland – The Rising Jewel in Auckland’s Crown“ post does mention the increasingly strong growth occurring in the south despite some setbacks including the Unitary Plan.

What this all means is again careful planning will need to be done not only in the South but Auckland-wide as well (I notice West Auckland is under a sustained slippage at the moment). For those from the South like myself the Council is holding a Unitary Plan open day from 1-8pm on November 13th at the Manukau Civic Centre – Manukau City Centre. I would recommend strongly to come along and discuss with the planners at length on where the Unitary Plan is for the South and how you can make a submission to it as well – it is actually not that hard once fully “briefed.”

 

In the meantime with November 28 set down for the first Urban and Rural Committee meeting, work continues on the Looking at Developing a 21st Century Auckland – Series post:

Base drawing of Manukau City Centre on tracing paper
Base drawing of Manukau City Centre on tracing paper

I do take my urban design work seriously when building up to the final product. Another piece of urban design work which can be handed off to a micro-level urban designer (I am a macro-level urban designer) was my alternative for Auckland Transport’s less than inspiring transport interchange on the council owned car park in front of the Manukau MIT building:

Manukau Bus Interchange Complex iso view to the east

Hey it came to mind that rather than consuming more Hayman Park land for the Te-Papa North facility that is proposed, you could house it in the large complex I drew up here (and it need not take all the room as it would be sharing it with residential apartments (the green block) retail, office and hospitality outlets). Food for thought Auckland Council?

 

Work continues…

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