Marine Industrial Precinct or more Houses at Hobsonville

 

 

That was the crux of a two-hour debate at the Auckland Development Committee yesterday. Whether to allow the 10 hectares of land at the former Hobsonville Air Base that was set aside for a Marine Industry Precinct to be converted over to residential, or keeping that precinct alive and someone finally moving into that site.

The end conclusion? Council waits another 12 months (after already waiting since a decision back in May last year on the exact same issue) to see if the Marine Industry Precinct becomes viable or finally flipping the land back over to Auckland Council Property Limited to allow a wider 20ha development of some 750 houses (compared to 250 if ACPL could only develop 10ha and not the Precinct area). This 12 month further wait came after Alloy Yachts who are based in Henderson Creek area (next to the North Western Motorway) said they would after due diligence completion move to the Hobsonville area bringing 215 jobs with them, and the Mayor leading the Committee into that 12 month stay.

 

The Herald gives a general outline to the Hobsonville situation here; Council delay decision on Hobsonville rezoning while Bob Dey of the Property Report gave his assessment here: “Yard 37 gets last-gasp chance, marine precinct housing masterplan deferred.” With that though some wider questions came up in the course of the debate yesterday.

 

Some context first

North and West Auckland are not as “blessed” as the Isthmus and Southern Auckland are in terms of large-scale job centres (or employment complexes). The Isthmus in terms of employment complexes has the following:

• The City Centre
• Port of Auckland
• Penrose-Southdown-Onehunga Industrial Complex
• Otahuhu-Westfield Industrial Complex
• Mt Wellington

Southern Auckland in terms of employment complexes:

• Otahuhu-Westfield Industrial Complex
• Wiri Industrial Complex
• Airport and its surrounds
• Manukau City Centre
• East Tamaki and Highbrook Industrial Complexes
• Takanini Light Industrial Complex (just zoned and already got its first factory built)
• Drury South Heavy Industrial Complex, both existing and up coming newly zoned site
• Glenbrook Steek Mill

 

Sure the west has Westgate under way but that is mainly commercial and some light industry. Both the north and west have their respective Metropolitan Centres per the Unitary Plan but are a long way off from being developed owing to a lack of plans to enable that growth. In any case those Metropolitan Centres (apart from Albany) will still be second fiddle to the City Centre, wider industrial complexes further south, and the Super Metropolitan Centre complex in Manukau if it is successful in being implemented with the Unitary Plan.

 

So the question ultimate comes back to Hobsonville in that do we go through with this 12 month stay (well we are now) and allow Alloy Yachts to come over and establish itself in hoping more (including supporting industries) might follow suit. Or do we throw in the towel and flip it over to housing despite large tracts of land available with five minutes from Hobsonville (referring to Westgate and the Kumeu Future Urban Zone further up).

I suppose a better question would be this: “Auckland is “great” at “building” residential complexes but is rather “hopeless” at building job and employment complexes (commercial and industrial (not including the main City Centre)). True of false?” That question I asked last night in my “A Question About City Building” post.

 

If I was to follow Councillor Quax’s logic in the debate yesterday I would be flipping that Marine Industry Precinct Land over to residential and be done with it with no consideration of employment centre complexes near by so that local people do not have to commute as far as otherwise would be required without a local employment centre. That said you would have to forgive me if I do not entirely trust Quax’s logic with him on the Manukau City Council (pre Super City) when they effectively screwed up the location of the Manukau Rail Station (500 metres short to where it should have been), and in my opinion screwing up the Highbrook industrial complex with no adequate public transport or even express freight links connecting the complex back out to wider Auckland (hence this East-West Link debate now in play to solve a previous planning botch up).

My own logic would be to put trust into Alloy Yachts and give them that final 12 months to get themselves over to Hobsonville. Usually when one goes over others soon follow especially supporting industries. As it was mentioned Alloy Yachts employees 215 highly skilled people as well as reaching out other supportive industries. If two more enterprises like Alloy head over to Hobsonville (or even Alloy expanding) we could easily see upwards of 600 jobs directly employed by that Precinct alone. This does not include indirect employment from other industries Alloy Yacht and others would use. Also while I am writing this I am wondering if the surrounding area to the Marine Industrial Precinct (so residential, commercial and open space) could be place made as a marine theme to tie back into the Marine Precinct.

If the 12 months lapse and nothing happens then well we might as well flip it back to housing and be done with it once and for all.

 

So the onus now heads back to the Marine Industry, Council, and Auckland Council Property Limited to get the best solution available for Hobsonville and wider Auckland. I just wish the Reserve Bank would stop hiking the Interest Rate with inflation measures well within the recommended range.