First of the Two Downtown Items Passed in Committee

 

The next run of blog posts will be covering the results and performances from yesterday’s 9:30 hours of often fraught debate at the Auckland Development Committee.

One of the major items that went through on a 16-4 vote in favour was the Downtown Framework; a guiding document born out of the Auckland Plan, and the City Centre Master Plan (both of which I have submitted on previously) on a suite of 16 Downtown projects to be delivered over the next 10-30 years. The cost? Right now about $477m all up over the life of the Framework, and the City Centre Master Plan. The catch? Well our resident Herald journalist who was there yesterday hasn’t mentioned it but Auckland Design Champion Ludo Campbell-Reid clearly stated that each of the individual 16 projects listed in the Framework will go out for full public consultation when those projects are ready to do.

Again: Each of those 16 individual projects will under go both costing analysis and public consultation before the respective project gets under way. So we could see some of the projects altered around as a result from consultation before the first sod is so-called turned. Bear this mind please people as it is something the Herald has not made clear very well.

 

Also it was touted that the City Centre pay a targeted rate of $20m a year approximate at the moment. Over a ten-year time frame that is around $200 million raised that would go to the Downtown Framework projects. So the City Centre on its targeted rate alone is paying 42% of the total approximate $477m cost of these 16 projects. Knowing that the entire Auckland region benefits from this (seeming we are a Beta class World City) the 42% with the rest of Auckland paying the other 58% seems equitable to me.

 

From Auckland Council

New framework sets outline for a world-class downtown Auckland

 

A new framework for downtown Auckland has been launched today, setting out 12 major programmes of work that will help create a world-class area that is able to compete globally to attract investment, tourism and jobs.

The Downtown Framework sets out how the programmes of work fit together, and provides the context for future engagement and decisions on downtown projects.

The framework was approved by the Auckland Development Committee. Committee chair, Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse, says: “These are really exciting times for Auckland’s city centre. Better transport and great quality public spaces will help it to become globally competitive, attracting businesses, talented people and creating new jobs. This is critical for the future success of all of Auckland.

“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity here to create a well-functioning, efficient and vibrant downtown. This framework is a major step forward. It sets out principles to guide some of the difficult discussions ahead, including Auckland’s central wharves and how to improve the amount and quality of public space in the city.”
The framework, which is led by Auckland Council’s City Centre Integration team, builds on the momentum of improvements happening across the city centre – including the three new cycleways launched last weekend and the quality walkways being opened this week and next.

Councillors also approved the sale of Queen Elizabeth Square (west of lower Queen Street), to enable other better-quality public spaces to be developed downtown.

The decision follows analysis that the existing square is shaded, windy and not well used; a larger, better-quality civic square could be created by pedestrianising part of lower Queen Street and the sale could fund new, high-quality public space at the waterfront. The three options are at the foot of Albert St, in front of the ferry building and at Admiralty Steps.

City Centre Integration General Manager Rick Walden said: “There has been extensive analysis of the existing space at Queen Elizabeth Square and it falls well short of what downtown Auckland needs. In effect, we are looking at shifting the square into the sun, to create a much better space outside the Britomart station. This would also generate funding for new, better-quality spaces at the water’s edge. Great cities are defined by the quality of their public realm.”

The council’s analysis included a Te Aranga Māori Design Evaluation, which supported the creation of new waterfront spaces instead of the existing Queen Elizabeth Square.

Notes:

The framework outlines the interrelation of 12 existing programmes, along with four further proposed programmes. These are:

• City Rail Link enabling package
• Downtown Bus Interchange
• Queens Wharf
• Lower Queen Street
• Quay Street and Harbour Edge projects
• Fanshawe Street Urban Busway
• Customs Street Upgrade
• Ferry Basin Redevelopment
• Downtown Shopping Centre block development
• Beach Road Cycleway
• Seawall Upgrade
• Central Wharves Strategy

There are four key future projects highlighted in the document:

• Hobson Street Flyover Removal
• Downtown Carpark Redevelopment
• Federal Street Laneway Extension
• Central Wharves opportunities

——ends——

The web portal showing the Downtown Framework (currently as an A3 document that I do have with me (but not an A3 scanner)) will be up sometime today in which I will link back to this blog post.

The conditional sale of QEII Square (which also passed 15-4 (will check when Minutes are out)) I will cover in the next post.

As for the performance of some of the Councillors yesterday? I will have a “special” post on that later today as it is worth mentioning who was the best performer yesterday, the worst performers, and the ones acting like ‘trained seals in front of a camera.’ You sit there for 9:30 hours yesterday and you will see what I mean very quickly.

 

I might have been the one that started it yesterday with this Tweet:

There was push back in the Committee yesterday, there was push back yesterday and today on Twitter. I went asking around in regards to the Metropolitan Centres and their subsequent upgrades and got a few answers back on that. While the timing of the Downtown Framework could be considered poor given that Town Centres are facing CAPEX cuts to have their upgrades down I did flesh out something from the upcoming Spatial Priority works that concerns both the Metropolitan Centres, and the Town Centres. More on that in a later post.

 

This is not the last we will see of the Downtown Framework as the 16 individual projects come up for consultation (and Long Term Plan consideration) one by one. For me personally I was happy the Downtown Framework was endorsed and will be further fleshed out at the individual project level. What I was not happy with was the five hours it took to debate both the Framework, and the QEII Square issue which I shall cover next.

More on the City centre can be seen here: City Centre Projects 

 

The Downtown Framework can be seen in the embed below

NOTE: Download the A3 document is 17MB in size so you are warned. The embed does not chew your bandwidth however:

 

 

Auckland Development Committee Agenda (Minutes will go up as soon as they are available)