Looking at all things planning.
Check the Sub Categories for more specific forms of planning
CEO states this will be done through the 2015-2025 Long Term Plan processes This just in from Auckland Council Council returns cheque Auckland Council is returning a $7.5 million deposit … Continue reading Council Turns Down $75m Offer for AT’s Downtown Car Parking Building
Question is do you want a Private Development, a Public-Private Partnership Development, or a case of Council-led Public Works? On Friday it was picked up that Tournament Parking … Continue reading Should Auckland Council (and Transport) Sell Off the AT Downtown Car-Park
Lets try more proper and formal processes first for an idea – please Recently I had written a post about the Mayor “floating” an idea around light rail … Continue reading A Ratepayer’s ‘Suggestion’ to the Mayor
Where I found it though I could say is rather ironic You will have to forgive me if I find the following a bit ironic today. If … Continue reading Investigation: Some Information of The Southern Initiative
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:
We all await a reply from Council and Auckland Transport on the offer.
Time for Auckland to Accept Density? Maybe Auckland and Central Government need to take a few pointers from the New South Wales Planning Minister on density. I shall leave … Continue reading Planning Minister Tells North Shore to Accept Density
From ‘Sourceable’
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
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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.
Radio New Zealand’s Todd Niall delivers latest report into the much plagued Southern Initiative The Auckland Development Committee is not due to meet until around June 12 (the … Continue reading The Southern Initiative Back in the Media – Again
City Centre has one, now time to get our two Super Metropolitan Centres one I consider this more of a place holder for myself with my next project … Continue reading Manukau City Centre Master Plan
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.
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.
Talking Southern Auckland 
