Auckland Learns from Perth

I prepared this presentation in 2005 after a study visit to Perth. It was while I was Chair of the Transport Committee at Auckland Regional Council.

The presentation covers the three urban regeneration and brownfield intensification projects I visited. Two of them were based around a railway line and stations very like Auckland's - same gauge - similar rolling stock. They're a bit further ahead than Auckland. Electrified....

Twenty of us went. It was inspired by Waitakere City Council's hopes and vision for the New Lynn town centre. There were attendees there from Auckland City Council too - and ARTA - the precursor to the present Auckland Transport.

The first one we visited was called East Perth. The image in this slide is a still from a video I shot of the sit visit - which I could put up on this blog...  will consider that if anyone is interested...

East Perth was a classic brownfield site. As I recall it had been a gasworks. Coal was brought to the site - it was on the water - but all that building work had been taken down. It was a bit like an empty railway siding by the water. Screaming out for redevelopment. But not a lot of existing urban fabric. The crucial bullet point here is the establishment of of Redevelopment Board for the project.

The next three photos are taken from the redevelopment - which was a public private partnership. You can see in this one the attention given to streetscapes and public art. The idea was that what was taken away in terms of backyards and front gardens - giving density - would be compensated by the quality and amenity of the public domain.

A mix of housing types were provided for. This is a five storey terrace.

The architecture was varied in some parts of the redevelopment. One of the learnings was that these homes rapidly became unaffordable - the demand was so high - and the supply of this sort of housing was so short... but it was a very attractive exemplar... others wanted it...

Subiaco was the real destination for Waitakere City Council representatives. They could see the potential for New Lynn. Subiaco was different in scale to New Lynn, but it shared many characteristics - there was a town centre there already - there were houses - but it was run down - ready for redevelopment. The rail line opportunity was there...

By the way - S.R.A. stands for Subiaco Redevelopment Agency. Again - a specific agency established to manage the planning, community buy-in, and to give effect to government requirements for affordable housing. 

This is a streetscape from Subiaco now. Mixed heights, mixed uses, retail... I haven't shown any pictures of the railway station here... though I;ve got stacks of them... just wanted to give an idea of the urban landscape that emerged from the plans. 

Again, a mixture of medium  density housing. Rigorous attention to design and meeting objectives for streetscape appearance.

This is one picture that's part of the station infrastructure. It's the bus rail interchange. Very successful...

Then we went to the Midland development project. It was about 3/4 through the planning. I ask you to look closely at this slide to get an idea of the timescales involved to get the planning right for this community. Again - a tailor made redevelopment agency established. 

This was a special trip. We received presentations from the urban planners, transport planners, project managers, chief executives of the redevelopment agencies. Perth's processes were exemplary - in my experience - and very different from the ad hoc processes considered appropriate in Auckland.

But Waitakere City Council learned from them, and came back to Auckland and used a special Council Controlled Organisation to oversea and manage the planning and implementation of the New Lynn regeneration project.Mayor Bob Harvey is at the head of the table...

Penny Hulse was there too...

This slide summarises what Perth learned from this sequence of three brownfield regeneration projects. None of these projects are the same of course, but the things they had in common were these: public money kick-start; tailor made regeneration agency for each community/project; 3-5 year master planning timeframe (remember - much of this is time invested in getting community buy-in and amalgamating land where needed - let alone getting infrastructure plans in place and funded); strict requirements around the provision of affordable housing (which is quite distinct from social housing).