SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF HOUSING INTENSIFICATION IN THE AUCKLAND REGION: ANALYSIS AND REVIEW OF MEDIA REPORTS, SURVEYS AND LITERATURE.

This report is the outcome of a review of community surveys, media articles and research literature relating to the links between intensification and social issues, both in New Zealand and internationally. The project is part of the Auckland Sustainable Cities Programme (Urban Form Design and Development work strand) which is a partnership between central government and local authorities. To respond proactively to considerations relating to intensification and social issues, Auckland City Council, Waitakere City Council, Housing New Zealand Corporation and the Auckland Regional Council decided to assess the perceived social impacts of intensification (both positive and negative) through analysis of local media coverage and community surveys, and then to compare these perceptions with national and international research literature to see if there was any support for the views expressed. The surveys, media articles and literature reviewed all highlight the diversity of opinion on intensification and social issues. The literature indicates that this is a complex area, with no black and white answers to the various issues raised. The surveys and media articles tend to concentrate on perceived connections between the design of intensive developments and future social problems, yet most literature acknowledges that social problems, such as ghettos and slums, are the result of a wide range of economic and social forces, with the built environment having only a marginal influence on these forces. Most surveys and media articles concentrate on people's attitudes to their immediate, day-today living environments, while the literature tends to concentrate on whether particular planning approaches (compact versus expansionist urban growth, for example) are better or worse in terms of different ideas about what constitutes good cities. There is little in the middle ground: what examples of development are leading to better social outcomes, which types of development are leading to worse outcomes. Also for those studies that do canvas this middle ground it is unclear whether their results are transferable to the New Zealand context. Following a period of literature promoting intensification and highlighting the costs of urban sprawl there is now a growing body of research questioning the claimed benefits of intensification. This literature often argues that the case for intensification was based on flawed research or on social doctrine. 2 Research in the next decade could be expected to provide a middle ground and highlight the importance of sound decision-making processes, good design and flexibility and adaptability, rather than adherence to a particular …