4 September, 2025

Milford, Sunnynook eyed for high-density housing

‘Deal’ with housing minister needed for flood measures

Milford and Sunnynook face massive intensification under draft Auckland Council planning changes.
Much of blue-chip Milford, particularly east of the town centre, from near Lake Pupuke to within 100 metres of the coast – is in line for designation as a Terrace House and Apartment Building (THAB) zone, with development of up to six storeys.
In Sunnynook, 10-storey apartment blocks will be allowed within around 10 minutes walking distance of the bus station.
At the same time, pockets of housing near the Sunnynook station are to be “downzoned” as ongoing flood hazard areas, with building restricted to single homes. This constraint is also proposed for at-risk parts of Milford, in the flood-prone Wairau catchment.

The changes are part of a recently revealed zoning shake-up across the city. Maps available from council to date are hazy on exact boundaries locally.
But the Observer understands natural-hazard zoning in Sunnynook will include slip-road areas leading to the bus station and near central culverts. In Milford, worst-hit patches of Nile Rd are included, opposite Belmont Tce, where homes have already been removed, and near Alma Rd, along with land near the marina and Brian Byrnes Reserve. Wolsley Ave will also be exempted from surrounding THAB zoning.
The Milford and Sunnynook intensification and that around other Northern Busway hubs, is part of a tradeoff with government. An Auckland deal with Housing Minister Chris Bishop allows for downsized hazard areas – with the single-home restriction and with more ability for council to impose conditions or reject applications.
It allows council to opt out of nationally mandated Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS), often referred to as 3×3 housing. But to do so it has to plan for two million more homes in the city, compared with the 900,000 extra the 2016 Auckland Unitary Plan allowed for.
A number of the city’s Special Character Areas, including in Birkenhead, are set to lose their status, although Devonport’s remains, along with its associated single-house zoning.
The Devonport-Takapuna Local Board is being briefed on the planning changes at a meeting this week, when it can give feedback to council.

Board chair Mel Powell said she had invited residents groups along to give initial views, but wider public feedback would come later in a process required to meet tight deadlines.
“It’s good news that homes won’t be built in the flood zone,” she said.
Locals, the local board, Mayor Wayne Brown and Planning Committee chair Richard Hills had pushed hard for this since the January 2023 floods. “We don’t know the detail yet,” Powell added.
Milford and Takapuna residents groups have confirmed they will be at the meeting to try to understand more about what is proposed. It fell after the Observer’s print deadline.
Building heights to six storeys had already been envisaged in the Sunnynook “walkable catchment” under the Terrace Housing and Apartment Buildings zone set out under council’s Plan Change 78 (PC78) to allow for the MDRS.
But allowing 10 storeys “will have a huge impact on the community”, said Sunnynook Community Centre manager Bronwyn Bound. There was already a trust issue in the community on when the later stages of planned flood remediation work would be delivered.
“It’s going to be 10 years, because they’ve got things they’re doing at AF Thomas Park, then Stage 2 in Milford and we’re Stage 3.
“We’re waiting in anticipation on what the council will be deciding, because Sunnynook is in a flood zone,” said Bound.
Milford residents also want more urgency and locked-in funding for their remediation work, which will follow the Stage 1 detention pond, which reduces available space for golf at the park.

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