The Auckland spatial plan: The challenge of implementation

Abstract

A new supercity has been created and now the challenge of making it work begins. In Auckland, New Zealand, eight local government entities have been incorporated into one single Council responsible for providing local services to 1.4 million people, effectively one third of New Zealand’s total population. The newly formed Auckland Council represents a departure from current local governance structures that apply everywhere in New Zealand. These changes were underpinned by a number of neo-liberal philosophical premises. These included increased efficiency gains, reduced cost and improved core service delivery. Of particular note is the intention to improve the effectiveness of urban planning and its implementation in order to better integrate land use and infrastructure planning. An important driver has been the Government’s wish for Auckland to become a truly world class, economically competitive city. The reform process was grounded in the findings of a 2009 Royal Commission report into the future of Auckland governance. The Commission found the existing governance structures were weak and fragmented. The existing urban planning processes were complex and lacked integration and alignment, failing to provide an overarching strategic vision for the region’s future direction and growth. In response to these criticisms the Auckland Council has been mandated to prepare and adopt a long-term spatial plan, introducing a new and untested concept for urban planning practice in New Zealand. The spatial plan seeks to align all of the existing statutory and non statutory plans within the region to provide a comprehensive strategic direction for Auckland’s growth. However, it is not yet formally aligned to the existing primary statutory land use planning mandate, the Resource Management Act 1991. The paper raises critical concerns about the capacity of the new spatial plan to achieve its desired social, economic, cultural and environmental goals, with the new Council’s limited funding opportunities. It evaluates the potential of the new plan to influence the existing statutory-based plans and whether the Government’s desired outcomes could have been achieved through the existing statutory environment. Finally, it raises concerns about the Government’s commitment, as the region’s major infrastructure provider to the spatial plan, along with the need to create a new form of relationship with the Auckland Council in order to achieve the ambitious intentions of the reform.