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Future urban growth strategies, at the regional, district and community levels, represent a decisive break from traditional predict and provide patterns of development. Plans for Auckland´s urban future follow a theoretical debate over the virtues of urban sprawl and compact city types of development which has dominated urban planning literature over the past 15 years, as overall Auckland´s strategies look to move away from sprawl as the basis for urban growth and focus more on intensification. However, as is outlined in the literature, there are many critiques of the compact city thesis, and those critiques can be readily applied to Auckland, especially with regards to feasibility and acceptability problems that have already plagued the implementation of intensification, as higher-density urban living contradicts with what most New Zealanders perceive to be an ideal lifestyle.

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Frank Hampton, PhD serves as an Assistant Professor of Educational Studies at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, USA.

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