Month: June 2014

$75m offer for AT’s Downtown Car Park

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Should the Council take the money and invest?

 

I saw this come up from Stuff earlier this morning:

Council offered $75m for car park

ELLEN READ Last updated 09:00 06/06/2014

Auckland Council has been offered $75 million by two businessmen keen to snap up one of its inner city car park buildings.

James Brown and Simon Rowntree, who run Tournament Parking, said their offer for the multilevel 890-space Downtown building on Customs Street would give the council funds to fast track rail-link plans without having to consider selling two other high profile CBD sites.

Recent reports have suggested the council might sell a section of Queen Elizabeth Square and privatise sections of Queens Wharf.

Brown and Rowntree said the offer was unconditional. They visited council authorities this morning with a $7.5m deposit cheque this morning and said their proposed settlement date for the remaining $67.5m was July 1.

The Council has yet to respond to the offer.

The pair said they were prompted to make the offer after proposals were made to privatise inner city public space including Queen’s Wharf and Queen Elizabeth Square.

“The rail link is essential for Auckland but it’s wrong for the council to sell public space to fund it,” their spokesman said.

“This offer would keep Queen’s Wharf and Queen Elizabeth Square in public ownership while providing $75m cash to kick-start Mayor Len Brown’s vision for long-awaited first-world public transport.”

They say the $75m offer was a significant premium on the carpark’s value and included clauses preventing them from increasing casual parking rates, presently $3 an hour at the Council-owned site, above the rate of inflation for at least five years.

Tournament Parking casual rates for some Auckland sites are $4 for half an hour

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/10126538/Council-offered-75m-for-car-park

 

A rather interesting development this morning that no doubt will have Auckland Transport, Council, and the wider city debating over the offer and whether to accept it or not.

 

I suppose the questions I have over this offer would be the following:

  1. The CV of the site is at $65 million. So is $75 million a good offer or a bit of a bargain here
  2. Will Tournament who if successful in their offer redevelop the site according to the wishes of the City Centre Master Plan. If not then would it be better if Council via Auckland Transport (who currently own the site) to hang on to it
  3. Would the loss of income from the parking building be a detriment to Auckland Transport and Auckland Council on upcoming capital expenditure programs
  4. Does this need to go through the Auckland Transport Board and the main Council Governing Body before any cheques are accepted for the parking building.

 

We all await a reply from Council and Auckland Transport on the offer.

 

Penrith Remodelling Itself

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What Penrith in New South Wales is doing

 

From ‘Sourceable’

The Changing Face of Penrith.

penrith-main
Source: http://sourceable.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/penrith-main.jpg

Penrith’s sleepy country town feel is changing fast. A hands-on Council and several exciting developments are transforming its character, breaking old stereotypes and looking to a new future.

Walking down High Street, locals stop to chat with each other and people are comfortable window shopping, spending time in the arcades or watching the footy in the local pub. This is Penrith.

What’s new in the area is the growing number of innovative projects and fresh spaces within the city centre. Penrith is now home to pop-up parks, mobile playvans and even a European-style water canal.

It’s enough to challenge other hip initiatives happening elsewhere in Sydney, but like many other places, Penrith’s vibrancy differs greatly depending on what side of the tracks you find yourself.

The southern side of the train station and traditional city heart has long been a centre of activity, while the northern side has traditionally been associated with farming, recreational and defence land. This too is changing, however, with several new developments to the north bringing people and rejuvenating place.

One such development is Thornton, a new suburb directly north of the Penrith train station that includes approximately 1000 dwellings, commercial and retail uses, two hectares of industrial land and seven hectares of open space. The diversity of land uses provided in the masterplan and its focus on walkable human scale promise to improve experiences on the ground and permeability into the Penrith CBD.

– See more at: http://sourceable.net/changing-face-penrith/#sthash.FhPX68q3.PSANSn54.dpuf

….

 

What is happening in Penrith seems similar to what is happening in our own Wynyard Quarter. That said I hope the Penrith project is not eye watering expensive thus attracting flak as its Wynyard Quarter cousin currently is.

Next time I go over to Sydney (next year hopefully) I might go check out Penrith and see how it going.

 

Cunliffe promises to legislate against coat-tailing

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Further commentary from Pete George on Labour and the ‘Coat Tailing’ provision in our MMP system

Pete George's avatarYour NZ

On Firstline this morning Labour leader David Cunliffe reiterated Labour’s opposition to the MMP ‘coat-tailing’ provision (where a party that wins one electorate seat gets proportional representation on their party vote without having to make the 5% threshold).

Cunliffe said went further, saying that ‘in the the first 100 days of a government I lead we will introduce legislation” to remove coat tailing from the electoral act.

@FirstlineNZ

David Cunliffe says a government he leads would pass law to remove coat-tailing from MMP “within the first 100 days”.

“We think it’s wrong, no matter who does it” Cunliffe on Internet-Mana electorate coat-tailing.

Stuff quotes Cunliffe:

Cunliffe said he challenged prime minister John Key to sign up to Labour’s bill, but the party would move to change the Electoral Act within its first 100 days in government, regardless.

“We’re saying a very principled and consistent thing,” he told Firstline this morning.

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The Janette Sadik-khan Presentation

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In case you missed it like I did – in the end

 

For those like me who missed the Janette Sadik-khan Presentation last week you can see the video (the presentation in itself is 90mins long) here: Janette Sadik-khan Presentation

The Auckland Conversations page also contains two PDF supplementary files from both Sadik-khan and Ludo Campbell-Reid’s respective presentations. As the files are both 136MB and 56MB respectively I will embed them below so as not to blow your bandwidth (especially those on mobile) out of the water.

 

Janette Sadik-khan Presentation – PDF notes

 

Ludo Campbell-Reid Presentation – PDF notes:

 

The City Centre Master Plan to which Ludo illustrates can be found here: http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/planspoliciesprojects/plansstrategies/ccmp/Pages/home.aspx#ad-image-0

 

And before any one comments about the amount of time and resource being poured into the City Centre trust me I am aware. A post about that particular concern will be written up over the course of this and next week.

 

Main Stream Media Finally Getting There? [Updated]

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Campbell Live following Metro Magazine and Radio NZ in Decent Auckland Planning Reporting

 

It was flagged in advance last week on Twitter last night’s Auckland planning piece on Campbell Live. And so the piece or rather three pieces showed on Campbell Live last night to positive acclaim by progressive Aucklanders and the Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse.

The three individual segments were:

Earlier last week there was an Auckland Conversations presentation (that I had to pass over) by Janette Sadik-Khan on how Auckland could use ideas from New York City to turn Auckland into a more pro-people rather than a auto-centric city.

Update: Below is the 30 minute interview with Janette Sadik-khan on her time in New York City with their transport and how their ideas could be translated to Auckland:

 

Having watch the Auckland Conversation piece on the net and the Campbell Live pieces yesterday I could feel mood swelling for wanting and building a 21st Century Auckland. However, I am cautious as well with the feeling we have a very high risk of stumbling at the first hurdle once out of the starting blocks. That stumbling at the first hurdle could either be from the wider Council itself (a watered down Unitary Plan for example) or the NIMBY’s not quite realising Auckland is a world City not some village in the south-west Pacific.

 

As for the Main Stream Media showing a more balanced view of Auckland planning such as that shown on Campbell Live last night, it has been a rather long time coming.

Metro Magazine, and Media3 (when it was showing) by Russell Brown as part of the Main Stream Media outlets have been pretty much on the ball with Auckland planning coverage since the first round of Unitary Plan feedback last year. Whether positive or a critique one could rely on these two MSM outlets to broadcast the news as Auckland works its way through getting its master planning manual sorted. TV’s One and Three were a bit absent until TV3 showed a concerted push with them through Campbell Live showcasing the Congestion Free Network earlier this year. The NBR I’ll give credit to as well with their coverage on Auckland Planning issues although the NBR is not as far-reaching as other MSM outlets. Stuff is there with the suburban reporters like former Papakura Courier journalist Dubby Henry being at public meetings and gauging the reactions to the Draft and Proposed Unitary Plans. Radio NZ with Todd Nial has been there since dot when the Unitary Plan was first released March 15 last year and I often find Todd next to myself and Bob Dey at the media table when Council committees meet. The Herald and our more conservative talk back shows are much to be desired in their Auckland Planning reporting with them often making the news rather than broadcasting the news. That said Duncan Garner is always an interesting one to watch of recent when he reports on what Auckland is up to.

 

The three individual pieces on Auckland’s planning by Campbell Live last night led to this Tweet by Deputy Mayor and Auckland Development Committee Chair (formerly the Auckland Plan Committee).

That Tweet led to an automatic reply from me (and further reply from the Deputy Mayor:

 

Essentially when the Unitary Plan was first released March 15 last year (when I was in Australia at the time) it was the bloggers and social media being at the forefront of the commentary and debate. Arguably I was the quickest off the blocks with this blog and my Twitter feed when the Unitary Plan first came out. Other social media outlets (both balanced, and shall we say tending more unhinged) took a little while longer to get off the blocks. I remember feeling a bit lonely covering the Unitary Plan debate in the beginning until the others came to the party. After that then some battles came along especially with one particular group from the North Shore.

But as the course drew on I became quite comfortable taking a leading edge in the commentary despite the limitation of resources others had at their disposal. In the end it was pointed out I was the most prolific Tweeter on the Unitary Plan last year.

 

Now as we work our way through mid 2014 and in preparation for the next round of submissions for the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan the larger MSM outlets are finally giving more balanced reporting. As Penny Hulse did Tweet a shame they were not there in the beginning with the Unitary Plan. No matter the bloggers stepped up and we carried the can – in fact we still do 😉

That said good to see the Campbell Live pieces last night. I wonder if we can get John in to sit through one of the longer Auckland Development Committees when a more substantial item is on the agenda, say like QE-II Square 😉

 

May ’14 – NZ blogs sitemeter ranking

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Hmm seems to be a glitch there as I appear twice. Will get that cleared up with the site master of Open Parachute this week.
But for May we continue to hold top 50 ranking on what was a mixed month with myself scaling back posts in the second half of May due to the arrival of our daughter Jerusha. Such a bundle of joy she is and already full of personality 🙂

Ken's avatarOpen Parachute

blogging-cat-meme

Image Credit: Riding the Sociological Roller Coaster

There are now over 300 blogs on the list, although I am weeding out those which are no longer active or have removed public access to sitemeters. (Let me know if I weed out yours by mistake, or get your stats wrong).

Every month I get queries from people wanting their own blog included. I encourage and am happy to respond to queries but have prepared a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) people can check out. Have a look at NZ Blog Rankings FAQ. This is particularly helpful to those wondering how to set up sitemeters.

Please note, the system is automatic and relies on blogs having sitemeters which allow public access to the stats.

Here are the rankings of New Zealand blogs with publicly available statistics for May 2014. Ranking is by visit numbers. I have listed the blogs in the table below, together…

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