Plans for port revealed
Auckland Council has been considering plans for the city’s waterfront behind closed doors, but the plans include no proposals on what will happen to motor-vehicle imports.
The NZ Herald reports that ideas include an open-air swimming pool, aquaculture, an exhibition centre and Te Ao Maori showcase, and an amphitheatre in the water. The idea of a stadium on the waterfront has been rejected.
The first round of cultural and recreation projects would centre on the finger wharves at the bottom of the CBD. This area includes Queens, Captain Cook and Marsden wharves. The Hobson Wharf extension, built for the America’s Cup, is also included.
Mayor Wayne Brown is driving the plans and suggests the finger wharves could be freed up for development “within the next two to five years”.
However, these wharves are used by Ports of Auckland Ltd (POAL) for its vehicle-importing business and for berthing cruise ships.
The plan includes no proposals for how they, or any of the port’s other operations, might continue. “Assessment of any future locations for the port or feasibility of port relocation” and “detailed costings for future uses” are described as “out of scope”.
In addition to the short-term conversion of the finger wharves, the plan proposes a staged release over coming decades of the port’s entire 77-hectare commercial area.
On July 2, the council held the second of two closed-door “workshops” on the proposals. The meetings were informal, but a formal decision on how to proceed is expected soon.
After the meeting, Brown told the Herald there is “broad support” among councillors for the first stage of the proposals. The next stage, which would involve removing the cars from Bledisloe Wharf, is “not yet over the line”.
The proposals are contained in a report by council agency Eke Panuku, which Brown requested earlier this year. POAL wasn’t involved in the workshops and wasn’t invited by the mayor to help create the plans, reports the Herald.
While Queens Wharf is council-owned, most of the other waterfront areas proposed for development belong to POAL. That company is also owned by the council, but it operates under legislation at arm’s length from its owners.
Brown has set a deadline of December 2023 for ideas in the report to be turned into more specific plans.
A spokesperson for the mayor says it was “to be determined” when asked what would happen to the existing operations on the affected wharves, including the vehicle landings and cruise-ship operations.
Between now and December, Eke Panuku will engage with stakeholders, do more work on the plans and then report back to the council on “key moves to get us there”.
