The Cost to US of Auckland Growth

The rapid expansion in housing and infrastructure to accommodate Auckland’s quickly increasing population is bringing with it physical and financial cost to the mature suburbs of Auckland.
As Auckland Council and its associated Council Controlled Organisations sink in an ocean of their own costs, they grasp at every opportunity to balance the books. Cutting deals with the large landowners and big scale developers, in an attempt to secure acreage for future development and help fast track present ones, doesn’t help in the shortfall of funding for new infrastructure.
In an attempt to gather more money to fund growth, charges for municipal services such as water, to communities that paid for the establishment of these facilities years ago, keep increasing at a pace well ahead of inflation and the cost of maintenance.

West Auckland suburbs are amongst the most mobile in Auckland. A large portion of our workforce fans out, in their vehicles, crossed greater Auckland every day to help build this city and those people are acutely aware of the restrictive effect on productivity and income our gridlocked North-Western motorway is causing.

The target number of new houses for Auckland every year is around 11,000, and at present we have been building less than a quarter of this number. The North-Western Motorway system is barely coping with the commuter traffic from the limited subdivision that has already taken place in the North West.

It is wrong to increase the pace of housing when the ever-increasing traffic numbers are obvious to commuters on a daily basis.
Already at peak traffic time’s north-western motorway gridlock restricts Te Atatu residents from exiting their suburb. If it is imperative to place thousands of new homes in the Riverhead, Kumeu, Huapai and Waimauku areas, then we must remove the necessity for these new residents to commute to Auckland. I will advocate for Council initiatives to encourage satellite commercial centres that give employment opportunities to the north of these areas.

Amalgamating Auckland’s eight area councils into one Super City has brought little practical change. It was supposed to bring continuity to regional planning and get done big ticket projects that were beyond the capability of singular smaller councils. In reality the Super City structure has eroded our regional identity, sucked all our income to its centre only to consume Rates in endless planning debate about Projects priorities.
Allowing Auckland Council to operate in such an inefficient manner erodes the value of ratepayer’s money.