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Auckland Council data via eolas

Auckland Council is the country's only super-city — a unitary authority covering 1.7M people across Auckland, Manukau, Waitakere, North Shore and Rodney. eolas serves 20 datasets from Auckland Council — focused on the Auckland Unitary Plan (AUP) overlays that drive every property, planning, and consent decision in the region.

If you're doing Auckland property research, planning analysis, or hazard / heritage / mana whenua due diligence — this is the source.

For transport data (bus routes, ferries, cycle network), see the separate Auckland Transport guide.

What's in the catalogue

Auckland Unitary Plan overlays

Most layers are AUP "overlays" — areas where additional planning rules apply on top of the underlying zone.

Dataset Description
akc_historic_heritage_overlay_extent_of_place Scheduled heritage areas — broader curtilage including context.
akc_historic_heritage_overlay_place Scheduled heritage places — individual buildings, items, structures.
akc_special_character_areas_overlay Special-character residential or business areas (e.g. Devonport, Mount Eden, Ponsonby).
akc_significant_ecological_areas_overlay Ecologically significant areas (SEAs) — biodiversity protection.
akc_notable_trees_overlay Individual notable trees.
akc_notable_group_of_trees_overlay Notable tree groups.
akc_outstanding_natural_features_overlay ONFs — geological / landscape features of outstanding value.
akc_outstanding_natural_landscapes_overlay ONLs — outstanding natural landscapes (e.g. parts of the Waitakere Ranges).
akc_outstanding_natural_character_overlay Coastal character protection.
akc_sites_of_significance_to_mana_whenua_overlay Sites of significance to iwi / hapū (locations + boundaries published with iwi consent).

Hazards + infrastructure

Dataset Description
akc_aircraft_noise_overlay Airport noise contours (AIANB, ANB1-3) — relevant for residential consenting near AIA.
akc_national_grid_corridor_overlay Transpower national grid corridor — yard / building setback rules apply.
akc_quarry_buffer_area_overlay Buffers around active quarries (noise + dust).
akc_high_use_aquifer_management_areas Aquifers under sustained use — water-take rules apply.
akc_quality_sensitive_aquifer_management_areas Aquifers vulnerable to contamination — discharge rules apply.

Plus 5 additional AUP overlays. Browse eolas.fyi/datasets?source=Auckland+Council for the full list.

Refresh schedule

Weekly, Wednesday morning NZ time. Auckland Council publishes via the GeoMaps Open Data Portal (ArcGIS). The AUP overlays update when plan changes are notified or operative — typically a few times per year, occasionally a flurry of changes during plan reviews.

meta = client.info("akc_historic_heritage_overlay_place")
meta["last_refreshed_at"]
meta["source_last_modified_at"]

License

All Auckland Council data is published under CC-BY 4.0. Commercial use is fine; attribution required.

Recommended attribution: "Source: Auckland Council, served via eolas (eolas.fyi). CC-BY 4.0."

Common patterns

What overlays apply at a location?

The classic "due diligence on a property" workflow:

import geopandas as gpd
from shapely.geometry import Point

pt = gpd.GeoSeries([Point(174.7633, -36.8485)], crs="EPSG:4326")  # central Auckland

# Load every Auckland overlay and check which contain this point
overlays = [
    "akc_historic_heritage_overlay_place",
    "akc_special_character_areas_overlay",
    "akc_significant_ecological_areas_overlay",
    "akc_outstanding_natural_features_overlay",
    "akc_outstanding_natural_landscapes_overlay",
    "akc_aircraft_noise_overlay",
    "akc_national_grid_corridor_overlay",
]
hits = []
for name in overlays:
    layer = client.auckland_council(name, as_sf=True)
    hit = gpd.sjoin(pt.to_frame("geom").set_geometry("geom"), layer, predicate="within")
    if len(hit):
        hits.append(name)

print("Overlays affecting this point:", hits)

library(sf)
library(dplyr)

pt <- st_sfc(st_point(c(174.7633, -36.8485)), crs = 4326)

overlays <- c(
  "akc_historic_heritage_overlay_place",
  "akc_special_character_areas_overlay",
  "akc_significant_ecological_areas_overlay"
)

hits <- c()
for (name in overlays) {
  layer <- eolas_get_auckland_council(name, as_sf = TRUE)
  if (any(st_within(pt, layer, sparse = FALSE))) hits <- c(hits, name)
}
print(hits)

Heritage register growth

heritage = client.auckland_council("akc_historic_heritage_overlay_place", as_sf=True)
# Schedule column carries the scheduling year for most entries
by_year = heritage.groupby("schedule_year").size().sort_index()
by_year.plot(kind="bar", title="Auckland heritage scheduling by year")

Special-character area composition

sca = client.auckland_council("akc_special_character_areas_overlay", as_sf=True)
print(sca["area_name"].value_counts().head(10))
# Devonport, Mount Eden, Ponsonby, Grey Lynn, Sandringham, ...

Source-specific notes

  • Auckland is a unitary authority: it does both TA and regional council functions. Some layers (aquifer management, coastal areas) that you'd find on a regional council elsewhere are on Auckland Council here.
  • AUP is the legal document, the overlays are the data: an overlay is the geospatial expression of an AUP rule. The legal weight lives in the AUP text itself (unitaryplan.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz) — overlays in eolas are the spatial precise-location reference.
  • Mana whenua sites are pre-redacted: locations published in akc_sites_of_significance_to_mana_whenua_overlay have iwi consent. Some sensitive sites are deliberately published as broader polygons rather than exact points; treat the published geometry as authoritative.
  • Schedule numbers vary by overlay: heritage places are individually-numbered (Schedule 14.1, 14.2, ...). Special character areas are area-named, not numbered. Tree overlays use unique IDs per tree/group.
  • Auckland Transport is separate: bus / ferry / train / cycle data is in Auckland Transport, not Auckland Council.
  • Not in eolas (yet): stormwater overland flow paths (very large + frequently revised), parcel-level zoning maps (use AUP base zone overlay separately), individual consent decisions (case-by-case).

Where to find more