A huge new housing development will rise on the Unitec land in Mt Albert

Future goal: a ‘desirable’ Unitec

Housing Minister Phil Twyford’s recent announcement that the Government plans to build between 3,000 and 4,000 new homes on a site in Auckland’s Mt Albert had many people reaching for their calculators. Could it be right, and is it even possible, that a new residential neighbourhood could be built to a density of between 100 and 133 units a hectare?

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Woweee! What a wild old night!

Oh, what a night! Surely the wildest we’ve had for years, probably decades. It caused merry hell, dropping trees, shutting off power, ripping away sheds and trampolines, closing roads and schools and leaving a trail of general mayhem but, thankfully, no human harm. Avis Morris joined the rest of the suburb on picture patrol.

 

Unitec: It’s time to grow up

How will the Government’s plans to develop the Unitec site at Mt Albert look once the build is over? Urban designer Matthew Prasad casts a critical eye over the project. [This article first appeared on the The Spinoff website and is published here with the permission of the author.]   OPINION: It’s been only a…

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Golfer at Chamberlain Park

Don’t shut us out says golf group

A pro-golf group fighting the Albert Eden Local Board proposal to redevelop Chamberlain Park is planning more court action if it’s shut out of the resource consent process. Auckland Council is applying to its own planning department for consent to undertake the first stage of the redevelopment and its officers want the step to be…

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House for sale in Lloyd Ave, Mt Albert

Latest prices in drifting market

A look at auction results for Auckland’s biggest real estate company illustrates the residential slow-down. But some Mt Albert houses are still selling well at good prices.

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Mt Albert Grammar

MAGS moves to change its zone

A zone change is on the way for Mt Albert Grammar – close to bursting at the seams as one of the country’s biggest secondary schools. But this change shouldn’t cause any distress to in-zone parents or those who have bought property in the present zone hoping their children will go the 3000-roll school in…

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Stories that caught your eye

The Unitec development story brought Mt Albert Inc to a wider audience and delivered a new record in traffic for the website. The March statistics show the story that predicted the Government steps drew over 2000 page views – a great result for an exclusive that had the national media scrambling to catch up. That…

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The 100-year-old community house at 869 New North Rd

Spruce-up for century-old dame

A fresh make-over is turning Mt Albert’s 100-year-old “community house” on the edge of the village into a more inviting base for local groups. Auckland Council is budgeting $143,000 (plus 10 per cent for contingencies) for the spruce-up at 869 New North Rd (just down from the ASB and Barfoot and Thompson), which started a…

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Ray Clements, the MAGS teacher who was the architect of the treeway that carfries his name

The man behind our urban forest

When Roy Clements was a little bloke, he came from the family farm in Matamata to visit his Great Aunt Adele in Ruarangi Rd on the slopes of the mountain.

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Unitec's bridge to uncertainty

Mt Albert bridge to uncertainty

Nothing quite like a bit of nostalgia and a line of slogans to sell a political plan, and there was plenty on show at the Government’s unveiling of the vast Unitec residential development.

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