UPDATED 8.30pm: More houses on existing sections in Auckland.

LISTEN ABOVE: NZ Herald Property Editor Anne Gibson speaks to Kerre and Mark Afternoons about the Unitary Plan

Auckland's just released Unitary Plan recommends a 22 per cent reduction in single house zones, with west and central Auckland taking the biggest hit of a 40 percent reduction.

CLICK HERE FOR A MAP OF THE PROPOSALS 

Rachel Smalley: Will the Unitary Plan shape Auckland's children?

The aim of Auckland's Unitary Plan is more people living in smaller spaces.

Auckland issues reporter Michael Sergel said it allows for a 30 per cent expansion of Auckland's urban area, and another 400,000 homes to be built.

"High density zones will be introduced, near transport corridors, town centres and schools."

Zoning for higher density within existing urban limits will create room for just over half of those.

The remainder will come with a loosening of the urban sprawl on Auckland's fringes on the North Shore, to the south and in west Auckland.

Sergel also said protections that had been proposed for homes built before 1944 will be removed.

He added that another area of significance was the removal of proposed requirements to negotiate with local Maori, about sites of cultural value, with the plan saying that there wasn't actually any evidence that some of these sites actually were of cultural value.

Councillors have 20 working days to approve or amend the plan.

 

EARLIER TODAY

David Seymour: Central govt will likely have to step in following Unitary Plan release

Andrew Dickens: Unitary Plan should be embraced

POLITICAL REACTION

Mayor Len Brown said the release of the plan was a major milestone.

“We’ve had four years of debate and everyone has had ample opportunity to have their say. The process from here is that we as a council need to consider the panel’s recommendations and make final decisions,” he said.

Deputy Mayor and Auckland Development Committee Chair Penny Hulse said the panel’s recommendations must now be accepted in part or in full or rejected with clear reasons.

“There is now a very clear legal process for councillors to follow. This is a crucial time for Auckland as we consider the recommendations of the panel.”

However, Aucklanders will be alarmed at a “gangbusters approach” to new housing in the latest version of the city’s unitary plan, says mayoral candidate Mark Thomas.

Thomas said the independent hearings panel’s proposal, released today, would expand the rural-urban boundary by 30 per cent, permitting 37,000 new homes in areas now zoned for rural use.

The proposal would also reduce the zone for low-density single housing by 22 per cent, allowing much more intensive development within the current urban boundaries.

"The Panel's recommendations represent a 'gangbusters' approach to new housing conceding that a future over supply is preferable to what we have today,” he said.

"The Panel has added rocket fuel to the original Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan. Very significant changes have been made including adopting most of the earlier residential out-of-scope proposals that Council rejected in February and abandoning the pre-1944 character protection overlay with no replacement provision.

"Based on my initial assessment, I don't believe the panel has established the balance needed for growth in Auckland and I suspect many Aucklanders will be alarmed at what they see."

The Housing Minister is keeping tight lipped about whether recommendations in the plan are to his liking.

Dr Smith said he doesn't want to influence the Auckland Council's decision.

"We believe the hearings panel has done a good job of dealing with very complex issues. We acknowledge that the report back of the unitary plan poses a real challenge for the Auckland Council."

He acknowledges it poses a major challenge for the Auckland Council and is highlighting tensions between those who support intensification and those who want a looser urban limit.

However Dr Smith said the government is confident the Council understands how important the new plan is to Auckland's future.

He's repeating a commitment made earlier this week, that the Government will give the Council clear air to make a considered decision on the plan's recommendations.

The council will have to decide by next month whether or not to sign off on the recommendations.

Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei is very hopeful the Auckland Council will deal with the recommendations responsibly, as Aucklanders need to know what's going to happen with their city.

"Certainty is really important for Auckland, it's been a long period of uncertainty for them, and I think the Council would understand that."

ACT Party Leader, and Epsom MP, David Seymour said residents in the area are accepting, if not generally in favour, of intensification.

"So long as they're legitimate concerns about congestion, education and community character can be addressed and that is what the Council needs to do over the coming weeks."

But Mr Seymour said its a disappointment the boundary has not been abolished altogether.

"Meaning that the plan is still to have the overwhelming majority of new homes built within the existing Auckland footprint. That is the thinking that got us into this mess in the past 20 years."

The Salvation Army has welcomed the new unitary plan and urged people not to be “Nimbys” saying “yes but not in my backyard”.

“Auckland must support the recommendations of the hearings panel on the Auckland City Unitary Plan if the poor housing conditions of low-income Aucklanders are going to be eliminated,” said the army’s social policy unit director Lieut-Colonel Ian Hutson.

“Inadequate affordable quality housing is the biggest social and economic threat Auckland faces. This plan gives Auckland a chance of eliminating this threat by ensuring the possibility of an adequate supply of quality affordable housing.”

He said the tendency on hearing news like this was for people to become self-interested and say, “Yes, but not in my back yard.”

“However, the creation of an Auckland that provides secure housing for all requires us to take an approach that considers the total city and all citizens regardless of income,” he said.

“This is a plan that in our view gives the chance of providing housing for those struggling in the current housing market, while also keeping in balance the character and environment of Auckland.”

Airedale Trust chief executive Bruce Stone, who is developing social housing on two sites in Mangere, said developing higher-density housing was a key aspect to ending homelessness in Auckland long-term.

“Affordable, available housing stock is integral to the success of the Housing First model in Auckland,” he said.

“With more homes being built under the Unitary Plan, Airedale Property Trust and Lifewise hope to be able to successfully home many more Aucklanders who are struggling.”

He said more intensive housing in the Central Auckland area was also supported by the soon-to-launch Coalition for More Homes, headed by Generation Zero and Greater Auckland and “open to all businesses, organisations, housing advocates and individuals who want to see the Unitary Plan passed”.

The Labour Party's set to proceed with it plans to create an Affordable Housing Authority and have it active in Auckland.

The party's unhappy measures designed to encourage and support affordable housing have been removed from the city's unitary plan.

Leader Andrew Little said given that his party's plan for Government led affordable housing is just as needed as it ever was.

"There's nothing I see in the unitary plan that changes my view that that is what is needed, and still needed right now."

Mr Little said it's been done at the behest of the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment and means developments with more than 15 dwellings won't have to contain a 10 per cent ratio of affordable housing as had originally been proposed.

"There is a major issue right at the moment for people who simply can't afford to own their own home but who need to live and work there. I would have thought that would have been front and centre of the unitary plan."

UNITARY PLAN WEBSITE

Residents can now search their property via a link on the council's website:

However, the site where residents can type in their address to see what it means in their area appears to be having problems.

Users have reported being unable to type in their address, or their address not loading.