New Auckland book outlines critical turning point for city
Auckland is rapidly approaching a turning point: it could take off and become one of the best cities in the Pacific, or continue to struggle with runaway population growth and living costs, argues public policy advocate Owen Gill in a bold new book published today.
Turning Point Auckland, which is marked by optimism about Auckland, provides a pithy analysis of the choice Auckland faces as it reaches the landmark population of two million people.
The book provides an up-to-the-minute account of how New Zealand’s largest and most complex urban centre, with its dynamic economy and highly diverse population, increasingly resembles powerhouse cities like Melbourne and Vancouver.
Turning Point Auckland aims to raise the quality of the debate about Auckland’s long-term future, approaching the 10th anniversary of the final report of the Royal Commission into Auckland — which led directly to the Super City in 2010.
Author Owen Gill explains how Auckland has entered its second big leap in population, which will take the city to two million people around 2026–28 at current growth. The last time it experienced a big urban leap like this was in the 25 years to 1976, when its population doubled.
Drawing on his international
experience of policy development and city management, Gill
believes Auckland is under-prepared for two million people.
He says the city faces four main problems:
- How to
pay for the services that two million people will need,
without continuing the steady increase in the cost of
running the city that Aucklanders are seeing now
-
How to raise the $45 billion to build roads, bridges,
tunnels and railways for two million people, without
shackling households and businesses with the cost
-
How to ensure Auckland’s spectacular natural environment
is preserved as the growing population puts more pressure on
space and resources
- How Auckland can take
direct control of most aspects of its future, with less
reliance on central Government and the rest of New
Zealand
Turning Point argues Auckland must
face these questions with a big-picture view, following
policies that would address the four big questions,
including:
- Reaching a formal contract between
Auckland and Government, under which the city would enjoy
greater autonomy in exchange for increasing its own
investment
- Raising a big slice of private
capital to pay for Auckland’s roads, bridges and railways,
accepting that private funders may demand tolls and
fares
- Providing Auckland with its own urban
development statute — replacing the Resource Management
Act to address Auckland’s special demands in planning,
consenting, and building
- Providing an
innovative form of rate rebate in suburbs that are being
built up quickly, so that existing residents feel less
imposed upon by densification
- Encouraging the
big businesses that make Auckland their base — and which
draw on its workers, schools, and transport — to take a
central role in advancing Auckland’s interests
Finally, the book proposes a deal with citizens that would inspire a deeper sense of what it means to be an Aucklander. Such a compact would demand more of Aucklanders, but would lead to local government that is better equipped to run the city — and a city that is more ambitious for itself.