Consultation on Port of Auckland

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Time to Talk Port

 

Bit of a change of tact today. Today BR:AKL talks port – no not the drink – the port that sits on Auckland‘s prime waterfront and moves goods in and out of the city via ship.

 

During the anxiety caused by the Housing Accord being dumped upon Auckland by the clueless Dr Nick Smith, Port of Auckland released their latest development proposals. You can read the “interactive” presentation from Port of Auckland here: Port of Auckland Development Proposals

Note: You need Flash to run the page and  not recommended on Smart Phones

 

I have gone through the entire proposal on first glance and will take a decent look at it tomorrow (unless someone else decides to dump a Unitary Plan stopper upon the city) (makes a good break from the UP anyhow). In going through it my pragmatism came to the play and some realisations had to be “made.”

 

Port of Auckland knows very well I would like to see the port shifted to the South East Auckland site near Clevedon (and 35mins east from where I live in Papakura). This would allow the redevelopment of the $4.5b worth of waterfront real estate into something more eye pleasing to the public, as well as get that freight traffic off the inner motorway system (to the point of staving off the Eastern Highway even further). However, due to Council through its shortsightedness (Ann Hartley) in denying the second part of the Port Review (looking at relocation options) the city (we) are stuck with the port staying where it is. In the same regard the Port seem happy enough to stay where it is, so efforts flip over to mitigation on their expansion ideas.

 

And so I realise the Port is staying where it is and now thoughts focus on how do we mitigate the worst of the effects if and when the Port expands in its current location. Hence I shall have good look at the proposal tomorrow and give my feed back on what POAL is proposing.

 

In the same regard; Port of Auckland is asking for public feed back. So please do so as this is critical piece of infrastructure and real estate holder in Auckland.

 

 

 

 

Manukau: The Second CBD of Auckland Presentation

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All Complete and Ready to Go

 

Finally my presentation to the Auckland Plan Committee (May 14) is ready to go. I have sent both the Powerpoint presentation and the 41 page supplementary booklet to Council to be attached with the Agenda (which at the moment is embedded below) and can be seen below.

 

The Powerpoint Presentation (9-slides) which I will be speaking from can be seen here:

 

The Supplementary Booklet (41 pages) for your in-depth reading can be found here:

 

 

The presentation will be summarising three points:

  1. Is Auckland a Megaopolis?
  2. Does Auckland in fact have Three Metropolitan Areas?
  3. Can Auckland support two (if not three) CBD’s?

 

Information used in the booklet will also go into my feedback for the Unitary Plan by May 31

I will also be attending the Generation Zero Unitary Plan forum event on Tuesday evening after the presentation to mix and mingle and discuss well – Unitary Plan

 

All go on Tuesday

 

BEN ROSS : AUCKLAND

BR:AKL: Bring Well Managed Progress

The Unitary Plan: Bringing Change

Auckland: 2013 – OUR CITY, OUR CALL

 

 

 

 

 

The Public Meeting Over The Mill Road Corridor

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Not So Sure on the Result

 

Last night the public meeting over the Redoubt Road/Mill Road was held at the Vodafone Events Centre where around 160 people showed up. My apologies in not attending that particular meeting last night as I was home on both family time and completing my Manukau CBD presentation. Just noting a sense of what could be irony; while I am not a big fan of the corridor up Redoubt Road and down part of Mill Road (basically to the Alfriston Road intersection), if Manukau is going to be brought up as a CBD and the existing industry expands in the area we will need to be looking at some serious transport options rather quick.

Any how so the meeting went ahead last night although from what I can fathom no one from Auckland Transport nor the Council’s Transport Committee was present.Councillors Calum Penrose and Sir John Walker as the Manurewa-Papakura Ward Councillors were present though. I also note that Green MP Julie Ann Genter was present however as well as Forest and Bird? Enough for me to raise an eye brow at this point in time as I wonder what alternatives this group would propose (apart from the Takanini Interchange upgrade allowing the 6-lane-ing of State Highway One) when Manukau takes off again and the Rural Urban Boundary has a very good chance moving East to Mill Road in the next 30-years.

 

I have written two particular posts on the Mill Road Corridor so far (along with the AT Plans attached). Yes I am meaning to write-up an alternative but, will not do so until my submission to the Unitary Plan is in at the end of the month:

 

The Herald also wrote a piece on last night’s public meeting as well: “324 properties in road’s path”

I did particularly note from that Herald article a quip about the Eastern Highway being defeated. Umm no it has not. The designation is still there and part of it is being built as a legacy project that we know as AMETI. At the same time there is nothing stopping NZTA from taking the reigns and building the Highway project, something that I would not put pass them with the current Government in power. In any case the failure of that highway being built along with the Botany Line which was to come with it is already costing the city as it is most days of the week in bottle-necking and economic inefficiencies. So I would be very careful in making analogies to the Eastern Highway (and Botany Line) in regards to other projects in the pipeline.

 

If anyone that did go last night would like to drop a guest commentary on the public meeting, drop me a line either in the comment box or via email and I’ll see what I can arrange.

 

In the mean time, we continue to wait on Auckland Transport’s fine grain analysis of the corridor.

 

THAT Bridge a Reality

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Err-What

 

I got told yesterday by the Deputy Mayor that the Karaka-Weymouth Bridge was removed from the Unitary Plan draft maps and even have the PDF to prove it:

 

However someone forgot to tell Dr Google:

 

 

Seems the bridge and link road are already there – we just don’t know it.

Roll eyes material there Google :p