Northcroft Street improvements

October 2021 - June-2024

Takapuna
Complete

We’ve upgraded Northcroft Street to create a safer and more attractive environment to support the growth of Takapuna.

The neighbourhood is growing, so we’ve improved the street environment - making it ready for new residents and businesses to join those that call Takapuna home.

Find out about other projects in Takapuna here.

Completion

We’ve improved Northcroft Street to create a more attractive and safer, pedestrian-friendly environment to support the growth of Takapuna.

These changes improve the street now and for the future - particularly for when the Auburn Street build-to-rent apartments and Waiwharariki Anzac Square developments are completed.

Construction was completed over May to June 2024 and there is now:

Better street lighting.
A safer street crossing.
New trees and plantings to improve the environment.

We want to thank everyone for their patience during construction, particularly the Northcroft Street businesses and residents.

Why we made the changes

Northcroft Street connects into the centre of Takapuna and offered the potential to be a more pleasant and welcoming space for businesses, residents, and shoppers.

Previously Northcroft Street wasn't welcoming to pedestrians, the street lighting was poor and there was no crossing at the Auburn Street end. These have now been improved as part of a broader regeneration plan to create a more thriving Takapuna town centre.

An increase in foot traffic

Foot traffic is expected to increase on this street due to developments in the area, including:

Takapuna Central Apartments
Auburn Street build-to-rent-development - a future mixed-use development on the corner of Northcroft and Auburn streets
Other private residential developments

With more people using this street, the improvements have made the street safer, more attractive and environmentally friendly.

Public consultation

An initial concept was codesigned with the community, with elements tested through on-street trials. This included two iterations of on-ground testing with workshops, engagement and feedback sessions. We used the feedback and findings from the trial to develop the Northcroft Street concept design.

In October and November 2022, we sought feedback from the public to refine and finalise the proposed concept design.

We would like to thank people for providing their feedback. Here's a summary of the feedback we received.

About the consulted upgrade design

The design we consulted on was proposed to:

increase safety for pedestrians and people on bikes
enhance retail vitality of the street
create a more attractive streetscape with native planting, street furniture and better lighting
introduce planting to improve the quality of stormwater runoff
improve the journey for people travelling between Toka Puia car park, the town centre, and future developments.

The proposed upgrade was designed to be durable and high-quality with the capacity for future growth.

It proposed similar street furniture and planting to that used in the recent upgrade of Hurstmere Road.

The final concept design

Using the public consultation feedback, we revised the concept design and discussed this with the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board and Auckland Transport.

The finalised design focuses solely on those things that were critical to change in Northcroft Street - safety and environmental improvements:

Safety improvements - lighting was a safety issue so this needed to be brought up to standard.
Environmental improvements - new trees and plants were included in the final design to make the street more attractive and offering environmental improvement such as rainwater run-off filtering, shade and bio-diversity.

Other changes included:

The removal of one of the proposed pedestrian crossings, as suggested by community feedback.
More car parks. Twenty-four carparks, plus a loading bay were included in the final design - 6 more than we consulted on at the end of 2022.

With the recently announced Auburn Street build-to-rent-development, on the corner of Northcroft and Huron streets, the number of people living in the area will grow substantially in the next five years and the improvements to Northcroft Street will support this growth.

This project is funded from the Eke Panuku budget set by Auckland Council.

A future upgrade for Huron Street

Auckland Council is looking to improve stormwater management across Takapuna. This could affect the designs to upgrade Huron Street significantly but does not notably affect the designs to upgrade Northcroft Street. As a result, we are progressing with the design and construction of Northcroft Street first.

This staged delivery also helps to mitigate construction disruption for residents, visitors and businesses. A proposal to upgrade Huron Street will be shared with the community at a later date.

Northcroft Street Reduced Design 03 Final 8 May V2

Project updates

Met local stakeholders

November 2020

Eke Panuku and its community engagement partner met with residents, business owners and operators on Huron and Northcroft streets to hear their experiences and ideas to improve these streets and their immediate surroundings.