Auckland City Limits

As yet more land around Auckland is being earmarked for development to enable downsized modern versions of “the ¼ acre dream”, we have to ask ourselves; “what on earth are we doing here?”

As all us Aucklanders know and everybody else laughs behind our backs about, getting around in the city and surrounding areas is a big fat joke! The answer is not urban sprawl. I watched a program last week ‘e2-transport’ which studied the city of Portland in Oregon. Back in the 70s the Portland local government drew a big circle around the city and said “beyond here there will be no urban development”.

The original reason for this was to protect surrounding green belts and valuable/productive farmland. The idea was that the area within the circle would be enough for development over the following 20 years and until then no development would occur outside the circle.  What those law makers didn’t anticipate back then is that limiting the city limits would pave the way for public transport innovations creating a highly efficient and successful system within a city undergoing rapid growth in density. Since then they have extended the 20 year no build limit to 50 years!

Today, “Portland is consistently ranked as one of the country’s most livable cities” (e2). The city is extremely pedestrian friendly through active limitation of car movements and with cycle ways almost everywhere it is rated among the top 10 most bike friendly cities in the world (most Portland families have only 1 car, if they have one at all).

We can all learn from this example; start thinking density, brown field development, public transport, walking, cycling, change our mind set, change our environment, change our future to a better way of city living.

- Posted May 27, 2011