National’s housing u-turn promotes urban sprawl – cities and ratepayers will pick up the bill

• Lauded by many as progress towards increasing urban housing supply and density, the MDRS allows land owners to develop up to three housing units, three storeys high, on most urban lots without seeking consent.
• That’s because while the law enables more housing units, it does not fundamentally change how land is developed.

Encouraging urban sprawl

• But they can also include wetlands, forests, floodplains or any other location not yet swallowed up by urban expansion.
• Developing low-density residential and commercial units on greenfields creates what is known as sprawl – something of an obscenity in urban planning circles.
• Characterised by single-family, car-dominated suburbs, these developments may provide affordable housing for those willing to drive longer to work, school or shopping.
• In many cases, it is subsidised by urban ratepayers while the infrastructure investment benefits only a few households.

Increasing carbon emissions

• Read more:
  Road to nowhere: why the suburban cul-de-sac is an urban planning dead end

  Cars are a major source of carbon emissions in cities.

• In Auckland, vehicle emissions account for up to 35% of emissions.
• Sprawl means locking ourselves into increased carbon emissions when the Zero Carbon Act has committed New Zealand to reduce emissions by 30% below 2005 levels by 2030, and make the country carbon neutral by 2050.
• New Zealand’s largest city has committed to reduce transport emissions by 64% by 2030, primarily by shifting to public and active transport modes.

Urban growth boundaries

• Outside New Zealand, this “missing middle” in the urban equation is characterised by townhouses, row houses, and three- to five-storey apartment buildings.
• For decades, cities like Melbourne, Portland, Vancouver, Copenhagen and even Beijing have applied urban growth boundaries to help preserve undeveloped lands.
• In the US, where sprawl has long dominated urban growth, cities have worked to increase density and housing supply by removing zoning requirements for single-family housing.