Panuku outlines the geography of Manukau

 

On Thursday the Auckland Council Auckland Development Committee will meet to endorse (thus set in motion) the High Level Project Plan that will guide the urban renewal of the Manukau City Centre and its immediate surrounds.

This post looks at a presentation Panuku gave to an Auckland Development Committee workshop last month where the HLPP was first presented and sought feedback. The next post in the series (due up tomorrow) will look at the guts of what Panuku is proposing and seeking endorsement for with the Manukau Transform program.

 

Manukau: The Thriving Heart and Soul of the South

That is the vision for which the Manukau Transform is set under and devised by Panuku. The purpose of the vision is to: “Manukau metropolitan Centre becomes a thriving heart of our area: an attractive destination, business centre and place to shop, live, learn work and play.”

 

The workshop presentation can be seen below (starts page 21):

 

So the workshop agenda was to:

• Share the High Level Project Plan
• Confirm the approach to framework planning
• Seek feedback (before it goes to the Committee in April)

 

This is the project area that will come under the Transform guise:

 

Yes Panuku are looking at some 600 hectares under the Manukau Transform program. So not only is it including the Manukau City Centre area itself but also Crown holdings, Housing New Zealand land and other areas as well to the north and south of the City Centre. For a comparison the main Auckland City Centre (including Wynyard Quarter but excluding Port of Auckland) is 345  hectares. So we are looking at just below double the size for a Transform (urban renewal program) and probably the largest ever taken in area mass outside of Christchurch.

 

So why is this massive Transform being undertaken?

 

While the bones are there to start this urban renewal there are issues and challenges that need to be dealt with as well. I will cover this in the next post in this series tomorrow.

 

This is the Council land holdings in Manukau:

 

The presentation goes on stating that Manukau needs:

• Vibrant local heart
• A more permanent residential population (something Panuku’s predecessor Auckland Council Property Limited has stated but was ignored by Council when the Auckland Plan was written until now)
• A 7 day evening and weekend economy (outside of the Mall and Rainbows End)
• Hayman Park and Puhinui Stream being the green lungs of Manukau
• Thriving visitor destination of choice
• Reconnect Manukau City Centre to the South
• Stimulate local enterprise and attract new investment
• Involving local people, with Community building and benefits

 

Quite a bit of work would be needed to realise those goals right? Well Panuku is on top of it outlining the possible staging of the Transform program:

 

Looking good there Panuku with first potential project off the bat being the Davis Avenue Axis and Barrowcliffe residential area directly to south of the commercial core:

 

While starting on Davis Avenue is excellent the Council and Auckland Transport might want to confirm the Botany Line Light Rail corridor from Airport to Manukau to Botany given these preliminary results from an Auckland Transport survey:

 

 

Finally Panuku pose a series of questions to the Workshop which would help form the final document going to the Committee on Thursday.

 

Previewing into the main High Level Project Plan that will be presented on Thursday Panuku have left no stone unturned in their analysis and recommendations for Manukau and its surrounds. More on this tomorrow in the continuation of the series.