Auckland’s Urban Sprawl, Policy Ambiguities and the Peri-Urbanisation to Pukekohe

Cristian Silva

doi:10.3390/urbansci3010001

Abstract

Urban sprawl has been discussed extensively with regard to its negative impacts. On this basis, regulations have been put in place to control sprawling suburbanization, including the establishment of restricted areas for expansion defined by administrative urban boundaries. Overall, these measures have not been at all successful, considering that city-regions continue to expand inorganically, often reinforcing urban sprawl patterns. As clear evidence of the weaknesses of planning regimes of control, these unsuccessful attempts are partly explained by a series of policy ambiguities that contradict the meaning of planning as a prescriptive discipline. This ambiguity is justified by the need to frame flexible regulations that allow adaptation to unforeseen events over time. In this paper, using the case of Auckland, New Zealand, it is demonstrated that instead of planning flexibility, there is planning “ambiguity” accompanied by weak opposition from rural regimes, which deliberately contributes to urban sprawl. This is relevant considering that the inorganic encroachment of rural lands diminishes the huge environmental potential of the peri-urban space of Auckland, its ecosystem services, and agricultural activities—all elements that encourage the creation of more environmentally sustainable peripheral landscapes as a counterpoint to traditional sprawling suburbanization.

Highlights

Urban sprawl has been discussed mainly in terms of population growth, suburban inertia and improvements to transport infrastructure [1]
The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that urban sprawl is not merely an outcome of population growth and improvements in transportation, and the expression of conceptual and instrumental planning ambiguities that do not acknowledge the environmental assets situated at the peri-urban space, and their value in preventing the impacts of sprawl or modifying its unsustainable character [2]
Auckland is no exception, considering that policy intensions are explicit in promoting more environmentally sustainable urban growth, but suburbanization is consolidating traditional sprawling patterns. This disparity between policy intensions and suburban sprawl is significant in Auckland, as most of its peri-urban space is composed of highly productive agricultural lands that

Summary

Introduction

Urban sprawl has been discussed mainly in terms of population growth, suburban inertia and improvements to transport infrastructure [1]. In the case of Auckland and other city-regions, control of urban sprawl has relied on restrictions to urban growth [3], accompanied by narratives of urban sustainability [4], livability [5], compactness [6], urban regeneration [7] and increments of suburban density [8]. These attempts are undermined by more structural drivers of suburbanization, such as the persistent desire to live near the countryside [9], high rates of car dependency [10], housing affordability [11], lack of control of the land market [12], and the underestimation of rural assets [13]. This disparity between policy intensions and suburban sprawl is significant in Auckland, as most of its peri-urban space is composed of highly productive agricultural lands that

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