17 December, 2025

Groups draft views on zoning plans

Local residents groups are working to the wire to pull together submissions on the massive house-zoning shakeup coming to Auckland.
The Milford Residents Association (MRA), the Castor Bay Ratepayers and Residents Association (CBRRA), Takapuna Residents Association (TRA) and an informal residents grouping in Sunnynook are all drafting responses.
They plan to share their submissions ahead of the 19 December deadline in case individuals want guidance in framing their own.

MRA co-chair Debbie Dunsford said: “We’ll be challenging on many levels.”
A primary point of opposition to Auckland Council’s draft Plan Change 120 (PC120) is the degree of government-directed intensification it requires. This point was raised at a Milford public meeting last month, attended by 110 people, where retired planner Brian Putt said council’s hurried draft process lacked rigour to ensure infrastructure capability ahead of development capacity.
The two million dwellings capacity target has led to upzoning across wider Milford, including more six-storey buildings from an extended Terrace Housing and Apartment Buildings (THAB) zone. The MRA supports the plan’s downzoning and tougher building regulations for flood-prone areas, but is concerned about the impact of compensatory increases elsewhere.
“There’s no real justification for the extent of the THAB zone around Milford,” Dunsford said. It would impact the residential character of the suburb and was near the beach, lake, the creek and the estuary, opening up concerns about water quality and future flooding.
CBRRA says the intensification goes too far..The capacity means council is effectively planning to zone for the next 180-200 years, by which time Auckland’s population – at four people per dwelling – would be 8 million, slightly less than New York City, and with a population density on par with Shanghai and Bangkok.
The Mixed Housing Urban zone was no better than the former Medium Density Residential Standards, it said.

The Takapuna Residents Association says it is finalising its submission position this week. Among its members there is concern about the extension of 15-storey building heights to more of the suburb.
Sunnynook residents hold concerns about the up-to-10-storey intensification planned due to proximity to a busway station. They want development stopped in flood zones and say there is a lack of infrastructure to cope with intensification. Community facilities are fully used, sports fields near capacity and schools may struggle to take more students.

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