The Hamilton-Waikato metro area is an urban sub-region of the Waikato. Hamilton is at the core of this metropolitan area which extends from Taupiri in the north to Te Awamutu and Cambridge in the south. The Metro Spatial Plan looks at a scenario of 500,000 people living in this area.

The Metro Spatial Plan is our chance to consider how we can best plan for our long-term future to maintain and improve our liveability through the way we grow and how we move around. It includes a 100+ year vision and spatial framework and a 30-year plan for delivery.

Vision

The vision for the Hamilton-Waikato metro area is to be a highly liveable and sought-after place to live in New Zealand. The metro area will be a place where our people can easily access employment, education and health facilities, serviced by reliable and efficient transport connections and great places.

Six transformational moves support the vision of the plan.

1. Waikato River: celebrating the Waikato River as the defining ecological feature connecting the metro area to the heart of a blue-green network supporting environmental and recreational use and creating a sense of place.
2. A radical transport shift: a multimodal transport network, connecting the metro area and facilitating a radical shift to using public transport through the establishment of a rapid and frequent public transport network shaped around where and how our communities will grow.
3. A vibrant metro core and lively metropolitan centres: growing Hamilton central city as our civic, administrative, cultural and commercial metro core, alongside lively metropolitan centres, well connected by public transport and safe walking and cycling networks, where people can afford to live, work and play.
4. A strong and productive economic corridor: establishing an economic corridor that links the highly productive employment areas between Ruakura, Hamilton central city and north to Horotiu.
5. Iwi aspirations: enhancing the environmental health and wellbeing of the Waikato River in accordance with the Te Ture Whaimana o Te Awa o Waikato – Vision and Strategy for the Waikato River, while supporting iwi in embracing social and economic opportunities within the metro area with a specific emphasis on Hopuhopu and Ruakura.
6. Thriving communities and neighbourhoods: enabling quality denser housing options that allow our natural and built environments to coexist in harmony increasing housing affordability and choice to meet the needs of growing and changing communities.

Why plan now?

The Hamilton-Waikato metro area is growing fast and the result is an emerging metropolitan area that sits across local government boundaries. The Metro Spatial Plan presents an opportunity to work together to support and unlock the potential of the area. Now is the time to influence the type and location of land use and infrastructure. This is a unique opportunity to shape the future Hamilton-Waikato area.

The Metro Spatial Plan sets out a framework to respond to the current and future challenges of growth in the metro area and will shape urban development in the long term.

It will help us address the current and future challenges faced by the metro area from declining water quality in the Waikato River and its major tributary the Waipā River, to environmental deterioration, increasing housing costs and demands placed on our infrastructure including from the number of cars on our roads to our public transport options.

Parties

Tangata and mana whenua, Waikato-Tainui, Hamilton City Council, Waikato and Waipa District Councils, Waikato Regional Council, Waka Kotahi, Treasury, Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Ministry of Transport, and Future Proof.

Implementing the Metro Spatial Plan - making it real

The Metro Spatial Plan will be brought to life through a comprehensive implementation approach which consists of an urban growth programme of priority actions designed to achieve transformational change. A further detailed programme of action will be agreed, updated and monitored through the Future Proof partnership.

Metro Spatial Plan Transport Programme Business Case

The Transport Programme Business Case (PBC) establishes transport interventions to promote the compact urban form aspirations set in the Hamilton-Waikato Metro Spatial Plan (HWMSP). These interventions promote responsive land use scenarios supported by the transport interventions to achieve equitable access, tackle our climate challenges and embrace kaitiakitanga across the sub-region.

The recommended programme of the PBC comprises of a series of multi-model elements including:

• Rapid transit
• Land use intensification
• Walking and cycling (incl. micromobility)
• Freight hubs
• Shared bus and freight lanes
• Supporting interventions including: − a regional and rural access programme; and park and ride

The delivery of this programme is anticipated to be complex. It relies upon road controlling authorities, land use planning agencies, public transport operators and government investors to work in a collaborative way to deliver a complex interconnected programme of activity over thirty years.