Hibiscus Coast residents have until Tuesday, 4th of July to give feedback on how to grow Auckland in the next 30 years.

With half a million more people expected to live in the city by 2058, the draft Future Development Strategy is the Auckland Council’s plan to make sure homes, jobs and infrastructure are built in the right places, at the right time, while also building the resilience to climate change and protecting our environment as we grow.

“The Future Development Strategy looks at the big issues around growth that affect our quality of life – things like where we choose to live and work, how we move around our city, our resilience to natural hazards and growing in a way that both reduces emissions and adapts to climate change, to benefit future generations,” says Chair of the Planning, Environment and Parks Committee, Councillor Richard Hills. 

“We want to hear from Aucklanders on whether they think we have got this right.” 

The draft strategy recommends that most of Auckland’s future growth occurs in existing urban areas. 

It also proposes delaying or stopping development in specific greenfield areas (undeveloped land) that have previously been identified for future urban development, due to natural hazard risk, impacts on our ability to halve emissions and the high infrastructure costs associated with development.   

The Future Development Strategy also maps out the urban areas in Auckland that are most constrained by natural hazards and recommend a way to determine which areas might be prioritised for investigations into the best adaptation responses.

Auckland Council’s General Manager of the Auckland Plan, Strategy and Research, Jacques Victor, says it’s important for the city to have a clear, agreed plan for managing its growth and doing this now will ensure these are reflected in the next set of budget decisions we make as a council. 

The council wants to hear from Aucklanders on the following proposals: to focus most of Auckland’s growth in existing urban areas, rather than growing more at the edges of the city; to focus development near local centres giving people easier access to work, services, facilities and shops by walking, cycling and public transport; to avoid further growth in areas which are exposed to a significant risk of environmental hazards; and to prioritise nature-based infrastructure that responds to the impacts of climate change.

Those who want to make submissions can do so at https://akhaveyoursay.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/future-development-strategy