Capacity for Growth Study 2010

The Capacity for Growth study monitors and reports on residential, business and rural land availability within the Auckland region.  All residential, business and rural zoned land has been assessed based upon the policies and rules of the region’s territorial authority district plans, as at March 2006.  Conclusions have been drawn as to how long Auckland’s capacity will last under current planning policy by combining past development trends and future projections with the capacity survey results.

The Auckland Regional Policy Statement (ARPS) requires that Capacity for Growth surveys be undertaken once every five years for the purposes of managing urban containment.  The Capacity for Growth study is also required for monitoring the progress and implementation of the Auckland Regional Growth Strategy (ARGS) and has been a significant part of the Growing Smarter Evaluation 2007.  This is the third study in the series with previous reports prepared and reported to the council in 1998 and 2003.

The report presents the results for residential capacity and business land capacity as two separate sections.  Within each of the sections the results are summarised by geographical area; first as a regional overview and then by the metropolitan area, rural towns and coastal settlements and the rural area (residential capacity only).

The survey results are analysed against recognised issues, for example; for residential capacity this includes a breakdown by housing-type, parcel size, period vacant, patterns of tenure and capacity uptake between 1996 and 2006.  For business land this includes a break down by potential business sector use (Group 1 - Land extensive industrial activities or Group 2 - Land intensive activities), parcel size, location relative to the regional freight network, period vacant and capacity uptake 1996 to 2006.

The report summarises results in tables, charts and as a series of maps.