It is enough to make a planner drool. The proposed Auckland Unitary Plan recommendations released yesterday have been described as the largest statutory project in the southern hemisphere.
When finalised, the plan will regulate what can be built and where. It decides the shape of Auckland and also deals with some environmental issues, both natural and in heritage.
It is significant enough for the rest of New Zealand to take notice. Auckland promotes itself as this country's international city and its housing and transport sectors are in crisis. It needs to be effective and efficient if New Zealand is to thrive.
The plan is realistic in recognising Auckland has to go up even more than out. If Auckland is, indeed, an international city then a large proportion of its residents will need to live a big city lifestyle.
That means apartments and public transport. That means inner-city living and population concentrated along train and bus routes and near transport nodes and in subsidiary centres.
The plan looks ahead 30 years and another million people. It is estimated another 422,000 dwellings will be needed. That is more than nine times the number in Dunedin at present (about 45,000).
The vision calls for 60% to 70% within the existing urban boundary and 30% to 40% outside that. There is also the need for 131,000 dwellings in the next seven years, 44,000 of these to meet the backlog.
It is enough to cause intense outbreaks of nimbyism, especially in the inner suburbs where more apartments and high rises would be allowed. The 99 residential zones would be cut to six and intensification would be permitted in much of the city.
Just imagine a new five-storey apartment directly blocking a home's view and sun. It is enough for other groups to cry in protest, too. The provision for 3600 sites of significance to Maori has been dropped, at least until evidence is produced.
Restrictions on demolishing pre-1944 houses have also gone. The draft plan was first released three years ago, and the panel has heard or read 13,000 submissions. There were an estimated 1.5 million submission points and 249 hearing days.
Now, councillors have the unenviable task of spending several days going through the plan before it is to be notified by August 19. There is then time for limited appeals until September 16. The council is in a position in which it can reject the plan, or parts of it, but it cannot relitigate.
Dunedin is going through its own planning issues (the 2GP), this being in the hearing-of-submissions stage. The city is fortunate not to have the intense housing pressure of Auckland and can do more to preserve space, character and views.
But there are areas in Dunedin where rules to allow more "intensification'' are proposed, and there is some opposition.
Planning issues are regularly to the fore in Queenstown Lakes as its population surges and as efforts are made to preserve outstanding natural landscapes. Planning is important to everyone everywhere, not just the planners.
The Government has expressed support in principle for the direction of the recommendations. So, fundamentally, have Labour and the Greens. Housing in Auckland has always been about supply and demand and the Government has used strict Auckland planning rules as a scapegoat.
Given the plan largely survives councillor scrutiny, that excuse will be undermined. Other issues, such as the capacity of the building industry and supply chains and the need for expensive basic infrastructure will be highlighted.
As more detail emerges in coming days, expect growing opposition from some quarters. Nevertheless, the plan - while not going as far as some would have liked on intensification and on the urban boundary - is bold enough to provide a blueprint to allow Auckland to better house its burgeoning population.
