Maybe we could try this sort of thing to get more houses done...

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shk292

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#1700523 9-Jan-2017 14:54

Linuxluver:

It's just more sprawl. Not a solution even in the short term.....never mind the long term.

Provided some jobs and services can be made local to the new town, it's a perfectly good solution. If you look at the original garden cities in the UK, they are now quite balanced, not just commuter dormitories.

We're not short of land and we don't all want to live in city apartments - a bit more diversification and expansion from Auckland would be a great thing for NZ. There are plenty of mega-dense mega-cities with fantastic public transport if that's what floats your boat.

MikeB4

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#1700529 9-Jan-2017 15:20

shk292:

Linuxluver:

It's just more sprawl. Not a solution even in the short term.....never mind the long term.

Provided some jobs and services can be made local to the new town, it's a perfectly good solution. If you look at the original garden cities in the UK, they are now quite balanced, not just commuter dormitories.

We're not short of land and we don't all want to live in city apartments - a bit more diversification and expansion from Auckland would be a great thing for NZ. There are plenty of mega-dense mega-cities with fantastic public transport if that's what floats your boat.

UK is a bit different they have a larger population and a wider spread of businesses. If we sprawl out the cities we then worsen our traffic issues. What comes first, the new homes or the new businesses? If the homes come first then folks need to commute to work. Businesses won't come if there is no work force or customer

base, it's a catch 22.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

shk292

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#1700621 9-Jan-2017 18:47

MikeB4:

UK is a bit different they have a larger population and a wider spread of businesses. If we sprawl out the cities we then worsen our traffic issues. What comes first, the new homes or the new businesses? If the homes come first then folks need to commute to work. Businesses won't come if there is no work force or customer

base, it's a catch 22.

Very true - but stuffing more into Auckland isn't the answer either. There are only so many people who want the city lifestyle and don't want a garden or a boat or a campervan etc etc. It would help if more businesses had their HQs in locations other than Auckland CBD.

Geektastic

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#1700769 10-Jan-2017 10:58

shk292:

MikeB4:

UK is a bit different they have a larger population and a wider spread of businesses. If we sprawl out the cities we then worsen our traffic issues. What comes first, the new homes or the new businesses? If the homes come first then folks need to commute to work. Businesses won't come if there is no work force or customer

base, it's a catch 22.

Very true - but stuffing more into Auckland isn't the answer either. There are only so many people who want the city lifestyle and don't want a garden or a boat or a campervan etc etc. It would help if more businesses had their HQs in locations other than Auckland CBD.

The only way for that to happen is for someone to create a greenfield 'campus' style town, based around new HQ's with the required housing and amenities. I've read about that sort of thing being done but I doubt we have big enough companies or imaginative enough politicians to achieve it.

Otherwise companies will simply look to base themselves where the largest potential pool of employees is, which is Auckland and, pending any sudden huge policy shift, will always be Auckland. You could 'hub' Auckland and give tax/rating incentives to companies to shift some office functions etc out into the suburbs I think and I know there are some - like Fonterra in Takanini.

At the end of the day, it is the nature of commerce to want HQ buildings etc in the CBD of prestigious cities: why else do they pay the vast rents in London, New York etc?

That sort of behaviour is changed only by money: tempting them by the carrot of lower rates or taxes in places you want them to go, with the counterpart of penal taxes and rates where you want them to move from..!

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