Recently Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown, in an open letter, pitched Wellington as a solution to those Aucklanders fed up with traffic jams, high house prices, and eye-watering rates increases (so everyone really).

She made a compelling case. Hills aplenty for mountain biking, a pretty good public transport network, great coffee, better craft beer, and the burgeoning creative, cultural and tech scenes are all things many Wellingtonians like about the capital. Oh, and house price inflation is a modest 2.4%.

It sounds like a great idea. What could go wrong? Well, everything, if the mayor gets her wish.

The letter makes clear that Wade-Brown sees sprawl and car dependency as the root of all Auckland’s affordability problems. But these are symptoms, not the disease. The actual problem has to do with urban regulations, such as height limits and urban-rural boundaries, which have prevented Auckland from growing up or out.

In the same letter, the Wellington Mayor notes the compact nature of Wellington, and how the spread of sprawl is constrained by not one, but two green belts. And not that long ago the council moved to further lock these areas away from all development, including the construction of public infrastructure, like roads.

If a deluge of frustrated Aucklanders did descend on the city, it is these regulations that would constrain the amount of land available to build on, pushing up house prices. Apartments can only cater for a portion of the demand, most likely single people and empty nesters, and even then entry prices start at $450,000.

Furthermore, bylaws which prevent the widening of key routes will make the traffic situation worse, not better, if we see an influx of people into the city. Wellington has good public transport, sure, but most of it is enabled by road, especially in the suburbs that surround the city. There is no train from Karori to the CBD.

This is not to say that Mayor Wade-Brown’s idea is without merit. It is, and I support the broad tone of it. Wellington is a great city and one that could be improved with the addition of even more talented people. But flexible regulations that enable the local economy to absorb population growth are needed. Restrictive constraints that virtually guarantee the city chokes on an influx of inhabitants are not.