Resources
Newsletters
Plan Change 120
Various links to 'nuts and bolts' of the plan changes, rather than opinions about it (plenty of those below!).
UniSphere's statistical analysis of the 516 submissions made on Auckland Council's Proposed Plan Change 120 by submitters identifying with the Mt Eden, Kingsland, and Maungawhau areas.
Summary of Findings Councils analysis method and charts of Special Character Areas. Worth a look, not least for the methodology. Different areas were assessed using different criteria, as we discovered, yet the resulting scores helped decide where a large part of our special character area protection would disappear. More fundamentally, Council had already identified and accepted these places as special character areas. Reassessing that collective character house by house, according to the surviving originality of individual buildings, completely changes the premise of what made a special area in the first place: Maybe they missed the memo?
Bar graph of who drew the short straw in Auckland’s game of intensification pinata. The hard numbers: who’s doing the heavy lifting.
Flooding, infrastructure & apartment demand
(...in the real world)
A curious twist has emerged in the housing slowdown: some newly built townhouses are sitting on the market so long they no longer qualify as new builds.The SPINOFF reports September 2026
"You sort of give up talking to people..." Christchurch Central’s apartment experience is instructive: 484 new dwellings were built in the inner city in the last year, but only 50 more people moved into the area. Hundreds of new apartments, remarkably few new residents, and periodic bursts of humanity as the short-stay visitors arrive for stadium gigs. (For those who actually live there, it must feel like being Bruno Lawrence in The film 'Quiet Earth').
Special Character Areas
Good reads for getting your head around it all.
A lovely little three-page read, and one of the best places to start. Clear, measured, and remarkably good at putting Auckland’s Special Character Areas into perspective. It explains why they matter, how unusual they are internationally, and gives a useful frame for much of the debate that we are now in (including helping you keep above all the political sniping!). Read this first, and much of the other noise starts to make more sense (or no sense). Great stuff as always from John Burns of the Charactor Coalition.
Resource Management Act
(some links coming soon...)
The Resource Management Act still applies to Plan Change 120 and the process now under way. The Resource Management Act also recognises “Qualifying Matters”, where particular characteristics or constraints can justify a different development (zoning) outcome. These include natural hazards, ecological and cultural values, infrastructure constraints and, importantly for Eden and Kingsland, Special Character Areas. Section 32 provides the evaluation process for assessing and justifying these matters. Qualifying Matters are not a way around the planning process. They are an explicit part of it.
New legislation intended to replace the RMA is progressing through Parliament, with potentially profound consequences for the way visual amenity, historic heritage, environmental values and other local protections are considered in future planning decisions. PC120 is being fought under one set of rules, while an altogether different rulebook is being written (Coming to a neighbourhood near you soon).
Noteworthy reads
Sometimes from unexpected sources; thoughtful challenges to some of the thinking behind current local and national government decisions. Some from organisations and pundits that are typically champions of infra structure and intensification development.
Auckland’s special character (2024) Perhaps one of the better arguments for protecting Auckland’s Special Character Areas comes from an unexpected source: Auckland Council itself. Its own Heritage Unit makes a remarkably good case for their collective value and importance, the economic contribution of heritage, and its value as both a marketing asset and a necessary ingredient of any functioning 21st-century city.
A little dissent from the back seat of the bus to Bishopville, perhaps?
Do have a look. Auckland’s Heritage Counts 2024 was assembled by Dr David Bade, Specialist, Historic Heritage, Auckland Council’s Heritage Unit.
Independent reports
Work in progress
Media articles
Some of these are on paywalls; trying to find alternatives- sorry!
High rise towers plan will not help affordability but will wreck heritage neighbourhoods.
Another awkwardly thoughtful person refusing to join the stampede... Mike Lee's contribution comes from a a long history of understanding how Auckland works. He is not knowen as an opponent of intensification. What he questions is whether we’re doing it intelligently.