Here is my pick of the housing 'game changer' that the plan will unleash:
Yes, the ubiquitous ‘sausage flats’ – units joined together and generally laid in a row (the sausage) at right angles to the road frontage - are set to return.
Why? Two things:
First, the figure below is from a monitoring report on the Auckland Plan. It shows the anticipated dwelling growth in the first decade (2012-2021) of the 30 year plan, by Auckland Plan development strategy category; compared with actually consented dwellings over the first five years (2012-2017).
So it is not the fringe that is developing, nor the centre, it is the ‘middle’.
Secondly, much is made of the missing middle in the density gradient across the middle part of the city. See for example: http://missingmiddlehousing.com/. It is often claimed that there is a gap between the high rise, high density apartment tower blocks found in the central city and the low density, stand alone houses of the suburbs. There is a gap between these two typologies where there should be medium density type units - like townhouses, flats and terraces and mid rise apartments. This 'gap' needs to be filled to help meet housing needs.
Many people say that the gap is the result of planning controls that require minimum site areas and similar land consuming rules, like minimum on-site car parking requirements. But equally many people seem to miss the point that the Auckland Unitary Plan has made big strides to open up the opportunity for the 'missing middle'. The Mixed Housing Urban and Suburban zones of the Unitary Plan are the most ubiquitous of the urban zones used by the plan, and neither zone has minimum density controls (although yard, height outlook and coverage controls still apply).
In this blog I want to start to look at the urban design and planning issues involved in the missing middle in the middle. More will follow.
To start with, I don't think the 'middle' is actually missing in Auckland; in fact it is very prevalent, perhaps too prevalent. According to the Council, close to one-third of all property titles in Auckland are multi-owned, either being cross lease (18 per cent) or unit titles (13 per cent).
Long a feature of the kiwi suburbia is the brick and tile sausage flats . They were often the first phase of urban redevelopment providing affordable, well built, ‘modular’ units in many of our older suburbs.
One estimate is that Auckland could have at least 100,000 such properties. Many were built by “Franchi and Ion”. The NZ Herald once reported that “At one point twins Trev and Mil Ion and business partner Noel Franchi had 37 gangs of builders working on the North Shore alone, says nephew Ron Ion. It was a different era. Franchi told the younger Ion at a funeral a few years ago that they would buy a section on the weekend and telephone the council on the Monday to let staff know that the footings were in place. An in-house draftsman would have the exact plans ready by Wednesday”.
As far as I know, the sausage block building form was shaped in response to the prevailing lot shape and dimensions (long and skinny) and simple bulk and location controls that used to apply.
If you take a section that is roughly 20m wide and 50m deep (1,000m2), draw a 2 or 3m wide yard around the edges, plus space for a driveway down one side, 35% site coverage you get a sausage flat footprint. No minimum density controls, outlook or outdoor living areas to struggle with.
outlook, open space and landscape treatment......
and then there is the problem of where to stick the wheelie bins and cars ....
but they kind of worked. My granny used to live in, and I flatted in one for a while.
At some point, the evolution of the sausage flat was haltered.
Minimum densities per unit came into play, outdoor living courts and the like, so rather than a sausage, you got a series of peas in a pod....
They did have a bit more green between them, and you did get your own house. This type of infill development is very common, and it was also an efficient form of urban intensification.
But as land values rise and the ability to afford a stand alone house disappears, my pick is that the sausage flat will return. In fact I predict that many of the sites picked for low to mid rise apartments in the Unitary Plan will end up as modern day sausage flats. This is because of the apparent preference for an identifiable separate unit and the ability to fit four or five flats on a ‘normal’ section.
Compared to the 1960s, these days sausages come in all sorts of flavours. The hope is that just as the humble sausage has advanced in the past few years, so too will its counterpart, the sausage flat.
But compared to the 1960s and 1970s versions, many of which were one storey, it is likely that most new sausage flats will be two or three storeys (garage below with two storeys of living area above). This format raises significant issues with outlook and overlooking when the units sit side on to the street, which is by far the most likely format. Street interfaces are also problematical where the units are side on, so too is the loss of back yards.
Here is one line of units side on to the street overlooking a bungalow, with another row of units behind that (admittedly these units are pre AUP, they are built on an old Business zoned site which used to be a service station).
No hidden density here. Neither are there the standard urban design responses of ‘backs-to-backs’ and ‘perimeter block’ layouts. The Auckland Design Manual seems silent on the issues of how to do medium density in a sausage block form well, when it is a site-by-site process of development.
Is this a problem? The above example is not necessarily bad. The question is more have we got to grips with the likely design issues, given that in planning terms we kind of have turned full circle.
Note 1: Auckland Plan Development Strategy Annual Monitoring Report 2016/17: http://www.knowledgeauckland.org.nz/publication/?mid=1784
Note 2: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/property/news/article.cfm?c_id=8&objectid=11630116
