Te āhua o ā mātou mahi How we operate
Strategic, collaborative urban regeneration and large-scale development
Auckland is facing rapid growth and the council has made a commitment to manage the way the region grows to deliver places that reflect the past, serve the present, and shape the future.
Its roles are carried out within Auckland Council’s strategic settings, including the Auckland Unitary Plan, the Auckland Plan, the Auckland Council Long-term Plan (budgets) and local board plans. The Auckland Urban Development Office is also strongly guided by its "Thriving Town Centres" strategic framework.
The urban regeneration, large-scale development projects and property management programmes follow decisions where Auckland Council identifies under-used property, or property no longer needed to deliver council services, and releases it either for sale, or for urban regeneration purposes. Nearby properties may be purchased and incorporated into regeneration programmes, or their owners may become partners in such programmes.
Where there is a need to retain property, our specialists manage it to optimise community benefits and financial returns to council, that in turn helps deliver on council priorities.
From time to time, Auckland Council also buys land services such as water and stormwater infrastructure, sites for community centres, pools, parks, and libraries and to build roads, footpaths, cycleways and for urban renewal.
Integrated planning and delivery
Urban regeneration is an integrated and holistic process to bring more homes, shops and offices to neighbourhoods that have high potential and good transport connections to support more growth in a sustainable way. It builds on what is already special in neighbourhoods, and gives Aucklanders more housing options close to their jobs, the shops they go to and the schools they send their children to.
This is done through careful planning, smart investment and strong partnerships – underpinned by local strengths and knowledge.
We focus on:
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Turning surplus council land into housing, commercial spaces, and public amenities
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Embedding local identity and cultural design
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Strengthening the natural environment through daylighting streams, improving flood resilience and greening urban areas
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Supporting public transport, walking and cycling
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Working in partnership with mana whenua
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Providing co-ordinated infrastructure for new development
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Generating revenue to reinvest in communities or reduce rates
By planning and delivering with intention, we create places that reflect the past, serve the present, and shape the future.
Place-led regeneration
Each community is unique and the work of the Auckland Urban Development Office draws heavily on local knowledge and values to ensure that regeneration programmes and large-scale developments reflect the culture, history, heritage, architecture and natural attributes of the place.
Placemaking uses a suite of techniques to involve communities in shaping their neighbourhoods for the future. During the strategy formation, planning and design stages, local people are engaged where they provide ideas, comment on proposals and rank priorities. This is often through hands-on fun events that gather critical information on what communities’ value about their neighbourhoods, desired development and the type of public amenities they want to see there.
Often, different potential uses of public spaces and buildings are trialled using flexible and low-cost ways before undertaking significant investment.
This level of community involvement in the strategy, planning and design phases also builds a sense of local ownership in the regeneration process.
As regeneration projects proceed, particularly as the effects of construction are being felt, we work with locals and stakeholders including local businesses to continue to attract people into the area - helping to keep community life and business patronage alive.
As new places and spaces become available through the development process, we activate these areas to boost public use - reconnecting the community to their now improved facilities.
Through such placemaking programmes, the Auckland Urban Development Office supports communities undergoing significant change and strengthens relationships to build trust and knowledge - ensuring that the regeneration project supports local identity and sense of place.
This includes testing design options, gathering community feedback and building community capacity to support social and economic outcomes.
Our four levers
We have four ‘levers’ for implementing our mahi across Tāmaki Makaurau:
Lead agency lever
The Auckland Urban Development Office facilitates a shared vision and urban regeneration plan for each location, leading an integrated council group response, while coordinating partner, stakeholder and community input. It then manages the regeneration process from strategy through to construction.
Commercial strategy lever
Working with a range of development partners, we take underused council-owned property assets to deliver residential and commercial development, with supporting public amenities. This can involve site sales, acquisitions, land consolidation and other activities to unlock market opportunities.
The Urban Development Office undertakes plan changes, creates new infrastructure, and removes contamination. This enables higher quality development and increases yields and revenue for the council.
We pride ourselves on the quality of its design and development. This is led by The Auckland Urban Development Office, or its development partners, ensuring that projects are functional, sustainable, beautiful and in many cases - award winning.
Public realm lever
The Auckland Urban Development Office identifies opportunities to improve the attractiveness, connectivity, and resilience of town centres as places to live and work, visit, and do business - building confidence for others to invest.
Working within the council group and with partners, it delivers capital projects such as new town squares and laneways, parks, playgrounds, street improvements, walkaways, and cycle networks.
Often with multiple benefits, these projects can help manage stormwater to reduce flood risk, increase shade and shelter, reduce vehicle trips and carbon emissions, enable recreation and healthy lifestyles, and improve safety.
Placemaking lever
Placemaking performs four vital functions in neighbourhood regeneration:
- Placemaking draws local people and organisations into the strategy, planning and design phases to ensure regeneration strongly reflects local values, culture, history, heritage and natural features.
- Through participation in events and trials for configuring public space, residents and businesses strengthen their connections to their neighbourhood - increasing their sense of ownership of the result.
- As regeneration proceeds, especially during construction, placemaking events and promotional activity continue to draw people into an area to maintain community life and business activity.
- As new public spaces and amenities become available, our Placemaking team provides public events and interactive experiences within them to build community patronage.
Other placemaking events provide the opportunity to test different potential uses of public spaces, trialling ideas in nimble, flexible and low-cost ways before undertaking significant investment.
This level of community involvement in the strategy, planning and design phases also builds a sense of local ownership in the regeneration.
As a regeneration proceeds, particularly as the effects of construction are being felt, placemaking initiatives are implemented to continue to attract people into the area - helping to keep community life and business patronage alive.
As the regeneration’s new amenities and public places become available, placemaking events and on-site aids enable and boost public use - reconnecting the community to their now improved facilities.
Through such placemaking programmes, we support communities undergoing significant change and strengthen relationships to build trust and knowledge - ensuring that the regeneration project supports local identity and sense of place.
The Auckland Urban Development Office tests design options, gathers community feedback and builds community capacity to support social and economic outcomes.
Community and Stakeholder engagement
Regeneration projects can have major impacts on the life of each community for many decades. Local people and organisations are the best sources of local knowledge - both about the nature of the area to be regenerated and about the people who will be affected by it.
A strong sense of community buy-in and ownership of the end-result is critical to the success of a regeneration project. So, it’s important that each community is involved in the regeneration process from the outset and has a direct role in shaping its strategy, plans and designs.
Locals and stakeholders are contacted as early as is practical, usually in the preliminary stages where high-level objectives (outcomes) are clarified and land-use options that could deliver the objectives are identified.
As strategy, plans and designs are developed, the community and its elected representatives are continuously informed to ensure that things are on track to deliver the agreed objectives.
The full engagement strategy document can be read here. Discover more about our approach to placemaking here and here.
Working with Mana Whenua
Auckland Council works closely with its mana whenua partners to understand their priorities in Tāmaki Makaurau.
While the Auckland Council Group, has legislated obligations to mana whenua, the Auckland Urban Design Office's experience is that going beyond this, to work in true partnership with mana whenua, greatly enhances its place-based approach and the quality of strategy, planning and design. In particular, it enables us to more fully reflect Tamaki Makaurau’s natural and human history and cultural heritage in regeneration design.
These aspirations were developed with Mana Whenua:
- Governance: We involve mana whenua in transparent decision-making.
- Culture and identity: We increase our practice of kaitiakitanga and increase the visibility of Māori identity and culture in our projects.
- Economic: We create more commercial investment, procurement and engagement opportunities for Māori.
- Wellbeing: We foster a sense of community and connectedness and help enhance the wellbeing of Māori here in Tāmaki Makaurau.
- Natural environment: We work together to ensure we are working towards significant improvements to te mauri o te taiao.
The Auckland Urban Development Office will continue to engage with mana whenua in the initial stages of a project to identify where and how they would like to be involved. Often, we work with mana whenua-nominated artists and technical experts to create spaces that reflect Māori identity.
We also engage with mana whenua when preparing commercial development opportunities within a regeneration programme - either engaging directly with mana whenua as developers, or brokering conversations between developers and mana whenua.
Auckland Urban Development Office partners with mana whenua individually and collectively to ensure that its work responds to their aspirations. Typically, we host a weekly forum and invite mana whenua to engage on the programme.
As well as weekly engagement on projects, mana whenua meet with the our Lead Team quarterly to maintain relationships and discuss any overarching issues and opportunities.
You can read more about partnering with mana whenua here.
Quality regeneration through rigour, review and market discipline
Regeneration and large-scale development activity is founded on working to strategy and being "place-led" through engagement with community and partners. From that foundation - plans and designs are developed within rigorous frameworks, so that governance, partners and the community can have confidence in the end result. Proposals are often invited from the private sector - to harness their expertise, innovation and competitive discipline, further ensuring value for money.
Read more about these processes below.
High level project plan (HLPP)
The Auckland Urban Development Office uses a HLPP at the outset of a regeneration to:
- Outline the context of what is proposed, including the strategic rationale for decision-making, information about existing statutory or non-statutory plans that inform the proposal, known market opportunities, statutory issues and stakeholder requirements.
- Provide a vision and supporting principles, goals and strategic moves to guide the work programme for this project.
- Describe existing and proposed projects, including specific properties involved and any anticipated high-level outcomes or benefits.
- Describe the approach to place-led engagement.
- Outline the proposed high-level funding strategy.
Masterplan
A masterplan gives effect to the HLPP by:
- Setting out the long-term regeneration vision for a neighbourhood
- Capturing the aspirations shared by partnering agencies, including Auckland Council, Auckland Transport, mana whenua, local boards and government agencies
- Ensuring that the local community and stakeholders have a clear understanding about the planned changes
- Ensuring that the development is coordinated and addresses the key issues and opportunities facing the area
- Describing the spatial arrangements of buildings and public spaces
- Scheduling the staging of development to deliver change over a realistic timeframe
- Providing a reference point for consultation with key stakeholders and the community throughout the design process
In some cases a “framework plan” is used instead of, or to support, a masterplan. Framework plans are similar to masterplans, with a strong spatial element, but are less prescriptive about specific land use and design elements.
Business cases
Auckland Council employs the “Better Business Case” framework promoted by the New Zealand Treasury. This provides rigour, an assessment of value for money and the ability to compare the merits of like and unlike projects. The methodology can be applied to whole programmes, as well as individual projects. It takes into account both financial and non-financial costs and benefits.
Business cases are developed in distinct stages as the community makes known its preferences for the project and plans develop from high level objectives through to detailed designs. These distinct business case stages reflect this evolution of planning through:
- a Strategic Assessment
- an Indicative Business Case
- a Detailed Business Case
- an Implementation Business Case
Use of the Better Business Case framework gives Auckland Council, and the community, assurance that its programmes deliver value for money.
You can read more about the Better Business Case Framework here.
Design review
Auckland Council subjects its planning and design proposals to independent review. This is usually performed by a Technical Advisory Group (TAG).
TAG is an independent panel of experts in the fields of architecture, urban design and landscape architecture, as well as in Te Ao Māori. Its role is to challenge to ensure robust process and support Eke Panuku in key decision-making - ensuring it is "creating amazing places" within communities. It advocates for best practice, innovative and meaningful design, and world-leading outcomes.
You can read more about TAG here.
Expressions of Interest and Request for Development Proposals processes
Auckland Council will typically seek development partners to design and construct the commercial and residential components of a regeneration. The development partner may also be contracted to construct the public areas and amenities that support the regeneration.
The process for choosing a development partner often includes three vital steps –
- an expressions of interest (EoI) step
- a request for development proposals (RfDP) step
- the negotiation and signing of a development agreement.
The expressions of interest step provides the opportunity for organisations to present to Auckland Council their interest in developing the site, their vision for the regeneration and their track record in and capability for delivering such projects.
The EoI process allows us to identify suitably capable organisations and invite them to develop fully worked up proposals, including designs, budgets and timetables, via the request for development proposals process.
Development proposals need to meet the conditions set by Auckland Council. These conditions can include numbers of homes and environmental objectives, such as a building meeting Green Star ratings and new homes meeting Homestar ratings.
Design criteria can be included to ensure that buildings complement the surrounding public spaces. Tendering organisations are provided with the criteria by which Auckland Council will assess their proposal. Developers have the freedom, however, to submit their own designs within the criteria, enabling them to bring their own experience and innovation to the process.
Once development proposals are assessed against the criteria, Auckland Council then enters into negotiations with the successful tenderer. These negotiations result in a development agreement (DA), which sets the design, price, timing and any other conditions for the development.