Plans for apartment blocks of up to six storeys along the bus routes from Howick to Botany and from Botany to Manukau have been formally dropped, after councillors approved a scaled back version of Auckland’s housing plan.
“You may need to order the big contingency of medics to be waiting because I’m gonna say something that you won’t believe,” Howick ward councillor Maurice Williamson warned his colleagues before declaring “I’m delighted with where you’ve got to on this”.
The veteran politician’s comments came as the Policy, Planning and Development Committee voted on Tuesday to amend Plan Change 120, cutting its theoretical housing capacity from about two million homes to between 1.5 and 1.7 million.
Plan Change 120 is the Council’s blueprint for where Auckland’s future housing growth can go, notified for public feedback in October 2025 under Government rules that required the city to zone for at least two million homes.
It drew about 10,000 public submissions, with widespread opposition to upzoning across the suburbs.
In April the Government changed the law and cut the required minimum to 1.4 million homes, forcing councillors to decide how much of the proposed upzoning to keep.
For east Auckland, the biggest change is the removal of six storey zoning along the frequent bus corridors from Howick to Botany via Meadowlands, which runs through Sandspit, Litten and Millhouse Roads, and from Botany to Manukau via Ormiston Road.
Proposed intensification around smaller local centres, including Meadowlands, is removed across the region, and the wider suburbs revert to the current Unitary Plan rules adopted in 2016.
The Council says about 85 per cent of Auckland’s urban area is left unchanged.
The area has not escaped intensification altogether, with six storey walkable catchments retained around Eastern Busway stations, and town centres keeping their proposed upzoning under Government requirements.
Williamson, saying he was speaking “more on behalf of the local board than myself”, used the meeting to press the Howick Local Board’s one outstanding request.
The Board wants the proposed six storey zoning on Howick Village’s northern slopes, from Mellons Bay Road to Sale Street and on Ridge Road near Stockade Hill, moved to Meadowlands instead.
“The local board have made, I think, a reasonable suggestion,” Williamson said.
“Is it possible to bring up the People’s Democratic Republic of Howick on the map?” he asked, before walking the committee through the affected streets.
In discussing zone changes for Howick he said “it just would move it from that little bit around the northern slope of the Howick Village and accommodate it around the Meadowlands, Somerville shopping centre, for which I think everybody that I’ve talked to is okay with.”
Staff declined the suggestion, saying removing town centre zoning for Howick alone “would start to beg the question, why not many other town centres?”
Williamson heard the answer and said he would tell residents where to take the fight next.
“So when I answer them back, I’ll say, you guys should be trying to go to the independent hearings panel and see if you can convince them.”
Mayor Wayne Brown called the adopted package “a compromise between those who wanted us to do less and those, like me, who wanted us to do more”.
Councillor John Gillon moved to adopt the lighter Scenario A package instead, telling the committee the capacity figures had been “magicked up” and noting it was the option most supported by local boards, including Howick’s.
His amendment was seconded by Howick’s other ward councillor, Bo Burns, but was lost, as was a bid by councillor Mike Lee to pause the plan change until the Government’s replacement planning system arrives.
The final package passed with a large majority.
“Now, once again, it’s Aucklanders’ turn. We encourage people to tell us what they think by making a submission,” committee chair Richard Hills said.
Public submissions on the amended plan change are expected to open in late August and run for four weeks through the AK Have Your Say website.
Anyone can make a submission, and existing submissions on the plan change remain valid.
An independent hearings panel will then hold public hearings and make recommendations, with the Council’s final decisions expected in mid 2027.
