Another Plan Change – REALLY?
Yes, indeed, the new version of Plan Change 120 has been released and is open for submissions NOW – closing at 5pm on Thursday 24 September 2026!
So, what’s the plan change about?
Well, this is part of an ongoing saga that stretches all the way back to 2022 when Plan Change 78 was prepared in response to housing intensification directives from central government, embodied in the National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD) and a later amendment that introduced Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS).
However, the destructive 2023 Auckland Anniversary Day floods forced a rethink of the plan. Much of Plan Change 78 was subsequently withdrawn to allow Auckland Council to come up with a new plan change that sensibly considered what types of developments were appropriate in areas subject to natural hazards.
Plan Change 120 was the result and submissions were invited in late 2025.
Subsequently, central government has reduced the level of housing capacity it requires Auckland Council to provide in its Unitary Plan, down from 2 million homes to 1.4 million.
In response, Auckland Council has withdrawn parts of Plan Change 120 (withdrawn parts are shown in white on the maps) and a new amended version of Plan Change 120 is now open for submissions.
This plan has capacity for more than the 1.4 million homes required by the government.
What are the main changes for Grey Lynn?
There are increases in density proposed for parts of Grey Lynn including Great North Road (a significant height increase to 50 metres – around 15 storeys).
All of Sefton Avenue, Herringson Avenue, Rona Avenue, Bullock Track see an increase in density to Terrace House and Apartment (THAB) zoning.
THAB zoning is also applied to parts of Barrington Road, Coleridge Street, Dryden Street, Firth Road, Gilbert Avenue, Selbourne Street, Schofield Street, Surrey Crescent and Great North Road.
The Special Character overlay is removed from some properties, including a few in Cockburn Street and lower Dryden Street, and replaced with higher density (Mixed Housing Urban) zoning.
Some areas that are prone to flooding are downzoned including parts of Ivanhoe Road, Maxwell Avenue, Sackville Street, Shirley Road, Stanmore Road, Tuarangi Road and Wexford Road.
It’s worth noting Plan Change 120 proposes changes to the zone rules – including an increase in height allowance in the THAB zone – from 16 metres to 22 metres.
Changes to the height in relation to boundary rules in this zone are also significant (from 8 metres and 60 degree recession plane to 20 metres and 60 degree recession plane).
So, how do I find more information and submit?
Auckland Council’s webpage with information on the changes, how to view the plan change maps, and how to submit, can be viewed here:
Auckland’s Future Housing Plan – Plan Change 120 →
Auckland Council offers a “friends of the submitter” service for anyone wanting help with lodging a submission – here is the link:
Submissions close 5pm, Thursday 24 September 2026
Thankfully, it looks like some “official” people have seen sense. Yes, you must look at the actual terrain, the real land, that’s being “MAYBE” developed, and some of the land is simply NOT suitable for intensification at all. No.
Intensification for instance along Ivanhoe Road, will cause extreme flooding, and also slips, with entire hillsides to disappear into any kind of valley, or to ooze up across ALL nearby roads!
DISASTER could easily RESULT!
Auckland Transport don’t go to the places that they say they want to develop, they admitted that in a meeting after they wrecked West Lynn shops! They did that wrecking, millions of dollars’ damage, by NOT checking what they were actually developing in the first place!
Everyone in the meeting with them heard AT say that, that – they just do everything on paper. NOT good enough for terrain (landscape) changes!
Genuine analysis by INDEPENDENT experts to understand this island landscape, must be done, before any intensification at all, OR millions of dollars of damage maybe more, maybe billions of dollars of damage will be done, again like at West Lynn, already!
That damage here will cause bankruptcies, and then an extreme load of responsibility, landing hard on the city council, to pay for the damage, and then on central government to pay for the damage, too, possibly. That will also cause MANY people to leave the area, which we cannot afford, as a city, especially at the moment and not for many years to come!
You must remember AT do lie all the time. So DO EXPERTLY independently check out what they say, and make sure they’re telling the truth about anything they say, or anything they plan!
The horrific vandalism they have encted on my house and other houses along Ivanhoe Road is absolutely disgusting too, for instance. I can just guarantee they’ve been lying about having nothing to do with that! Our Whanau with 30 years without ANY trouble along here, and then suddenly AT want my family house, and my car tyres get slashed, two of them, my solar power gets smashed on the roof of my house? Random people knock at my door and run away, etc etc etc.
THEN no car, (I had to hide it), and my house was in a blacked out state, with no heating, no light MID-WINTER!
A 71-year-old woman with NO heating I could’ve DIED!
It would’ve been their fault, AT AT’S FAULT. Manslaughter.
My whanau would’ve had AT up for manslaughter at the least!
Does council want this? I see AT are after Devonport now! They’ll be threatening peopkle along that long, narrow road in there too, now, for their houses and land, in a land grab?
The damage central government has done to the country, with reducing our population all over, is extreme. Many of those NZers will NOT come back here, and many people overseas have heard the city is infested with gangster behaviour, from AT.
Tamaki Auckland is in terrible trouble, in fact in many ways!
More consideration must be paid to Tamaki Auckland citizens and their needs, but also extreme care needs to be taken with the LAND itself, with genuine experts deciding what should go where.
EXPERTS need to plan buildings, and roads and other infrastructure, seriously!
The LTA has NOTHING to do with that project?? They seem NOT to be contracted?? But AT has stepped in as if they are in charge?? That is fraudulent! NO PROOF exists that AT are contracted that we have seen.
AT are only ever contracted to do Road services, FOR the Land Transport Authority, (LTA), but they’ve been PRETENDING that they had contracts?
Yes, sending shoddy little cut and paste newsletters BOGUS, very unprofessional, I have copies of every single one of their bogus newsletters. I’ve shown them to a lawyer, they can’t believe their eyes!
HOW HAS THE CITY COUNCIL ALLOQWED THIS?
As a well-known writer, all the editors of every newspaper and magazine, may know who I am, or find out easily, – google me. I have relayed enormous amounts of information about this Tamaki Auckland mess, to media! Others have also done that.
It’s a fact that once a certain amount of people, get the same information, suddenly everybody knows it! That’s Communication 101.
We do not want shoddy DIY suburbs, that collapse in a year or two, or even less!
The land Grabbing going on from Auckland Transport is also surely criminal fraud, pretending that they are something to do with the Land Transport Authority (LTA). when they are NOT! That has to stop! Real Estate Fraud is a crime!
Will Tamaki Auckland Council Be Found To Be Complicit in wrongdoing too?
It’s not the population’s fault if Auckland transport have not adjusted to the country emptying, and, and the city being half-empty, and their AT revenue is down. It is not us the citizens fault if Auckland Transport are losing money.
AT MUST NOT take out their troubles on local populations, with Real Estate Fraud! No!
people will just move out of Tamaki Auckland! No one else will move in, hearing the city’s a mess of fraud, land grabbing etc!
This is a small country and word travels fast, especially bad news! That bad news also travels overseas. Grey Lynn Residents have friends all over the world, who we correspond with regularly, who have heard about the LAND GRABBING going on here, and about the fraudulent behaviour with development!
BAD NEWS has put many people off even visiting this country, and Tamaki Auckland city! Many of us tell our many friends about the shocking behaviour of Auckland Transport, and if you ask me all of AT should be made redundant, every single one of them responsible for the atrocious behaviour, threatening citizens to try and get our houses!
How has that fraudulent Land Grabbing been allowed to carry on???
DEPORT THEM if they are not from here, as well!
Also, ridiculous plans AT have come up with are OFTEN patiently obviously wrong!
Ivanhoe Road for example is on a flood-plain, that WON’T take heavy development. Fragile land will collapse, houses will collapse too, lives will be lost, properties will be destroyed, don’t be ridiculous!
STOP Pie in the sky planning, to cover up LAND GRABBING for Real Estate Fraud.
I have an International Communication degree, am a realist author too, I can analyse any organisation anywhere in the world. Plainly, this city, some of the city council, Auckland Transport, and other people related, are all behaving in a fraudulent or at least a careless manner. It’s Corruption of Process – look it up.
Endangering lives, and endangering properties, distressing citizens, so they leave or fall ill is dangerous; do you think half of Auckland’s disappeared?
Being set up as targets for criminals makes people leave, Breaking News!
Thank you for reading if you got this far. You can probably tell I’m extremely annoyed. But I’ve lived here happily for 30 years, MY WHANAU TOO, AND WE ARE NOT never leaving this house, IF THREATENED. No!
Also, if I pass away due to your horrible neglet, or fraudulent behaviour, and AT’satrocious behaviour, there could be a manslaughter charge involved, think about that! How would you like roadwork machinery set up outside your house at 3 am in the morning, HUGE NOISE, in two different places on your road? Yes 3 o;’clock in the morning, Deliberately done to wake everybody up?
How would you like that? It could happen to you next?!
When we bought this house I said I’m staying here till they carry me out in a box. Then my family will enjoy this house. 30 years I paid this off, I didn’t pay it off to have people fraudulently try and get it off me!
Just just because I’m a woman living alone, doesn’t mean I am a target for fraudulent and bullying, THREATENING behavio I also habve HUGE family, and friend and professional support!
We will fight you, we will ALL fight you, my whole family will fight you, even if I am gone! We Will Keep Fighting and we will WIN, with professionals too and more.
I hope that is crystal clear by now? Really!
Behave like decent people now, for pity’s sake! LEARN HOW!
Thank you.