Infrastructure Investment and Phasing

The Infrastructure Investment and Phasing unit:

• co-ordinates the integration of infrastructure at the strategic and delivery stages,
• integrates Auckland Council Group’s response to growth, 
• informs growth strategies, infrastructure, and urban development decisions,
• facilitates accelerated development delivery through commercial agreements. 

This provides a way for developers and Auckland Council asset owners and specialists to coordinate, communicate, and deliver developments. It also supports the formulation, negotiation, and drafting of commercial agreements for infrastructure delivery.

IIP plays a critical role in shaping Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland’s future by aligning infrastructure and development delivery with land-use planning.
As a key function of the Auckland Urban Development Office, the team’s focus is on understanding the infrastructure needs for agreed ‘Investment Priority Areas’ and other identified growth areas, while remaining responsive to any development activity whether it is in brownfield or greenfield locations, in or out of sequence. 

This allows private developers, Crown agencies, iwi, and community housing providers to align investment decisions with Auckland Council’s growth plans. 

The IIP unit also develops, negotiates, drafts, and manages commercial agreements that complement Auckland’s regulatory system. The commercial agreements clearly define roles and obligations ensuring accountability by locking in the scope and funding of the development. This provides all parties with certainty around the funding and delivery of infrastructure and therefore supports better project outcomes for the council, infrastructure provider, Auckland Council, and developers.

Auckland Council and the CCO’s play a significant part in urban development from strategic planning by way of the Future Development Strategy, Auckland Unitary Plan and 30-year infrastructure plans, as well as investing in significant infrastructure (transport, water, wastewater, stormwater, parks, and community facilities).  This includes the careful phasing and sequencing of infrastructure investment in urban regeneration and greenfield growth areas, advocating and partnering with developers and infrastructure providers. A range of funding and financing tools and practices, such as partnerships and commercial agreements, are also employed to support well-planned growth on the ground.

 As the city grows, IIP’s work seeks to ensure the right infrastructure is in place—at the right time and in the right location—to enable vibrant, connected, and sustainable well-functioning urban outcomes for our communities. IIP also recognises that growth does not always follow forecasts, so on-going monitoring and ground-truthing, to respond to real-world development activity are essential to IIP’s work programmes.

At the heart of IIP’s work are tools such as 

•    Growth Area Infrastructure List (GAIL) 
•    Growth Area Viewer (GAV), 
•    Integrated Workstream Service (IWS) 
•    Commercial agreements.

GAIL and GAV provide a comprehensive view of growth-related infrastructure needs across development areas, based on Auckland’s anticipated growth. 

The IWS is a ‘one-stop shop’ co-ordination service for large-scale developments that require the delivery of multiple public assets. It enables co-ordination and alignment of planning and infrastructure responses to development proposals. There are two types – geographical i.e. north, south, north-west, and central; and developer interfacing.

The commercial agreements support delivery through documented, agreed solutions to respond to development needs covering both brownfield and greenfield, throughout the Auckland Region. Types of agreements include:

• Infrastructure Funding Agreements – between Auckland Council and developers.
• Entrusted Works Agreements – between Auckland Council and CCO’s.
• Agreements for Infrastructure Works – between Council, CCO’s and Applicants in Private Plan Changes.
• Co-funding / Cost share Agreements – between stakeholders.
  Memorandum of Understanding – between stakeholders.
  

IIP supports:

• Long-term infrastructure scoping to enable growth (through close work with asset groups, Finance departments, crown agencies, and the development community)
• Monitoring and coordination of Auckland Council infrastructure across growth areas
• Asset governance such as data analysis and visualisation to understand what is happening on the ground and to inform strategic planning and decisions
• Stakeholder engagement to integrate infrastructure programming with planning processes and facilitate infrastructure delivery.
• Commercial agreements with developers and stakeholders to provide certainty and accelerate delivery of public assets and unlock development.