Massive Auckland waterfront expansion proposed
By Design Daily Team,
How much do Aucklanders care about their waterfront?
Enough to oppose a major expansion of Auckland's ports, Heart of the City hopes.
The lobby group has launched a publicity campaign, "Your Port, Your Call", to get Aucklanders involved in plans which it said were buried in technical documents supporting the Auckland Draft Waterfront Plan, and released the above image which it says illustrates what the expansion would look like.
Heart of the City chief executive Alex Swney said Ports of Auckland wanted to increase the area of its downtown container wharves by the size of 16 Eden Parks while selling Captain Cook Wharf back to the city.
The expansion plans have been in the public domain for more than a year but unless someone knew what they were looking for, they were hard to find and recognise, he said.
Ports of Auckland denied trying to hide its plans and said they were available on its website, while the council – which was responsible for the draft waterfront plan – said the ports area was outside its jurisdiction and its report linked to the Ports website, according to the Herald.
The plan involves consolidating and extending container space out into the harbour over 40 years to handle a projected 400 percent increase in traffic.
The council is to vote on the plan in March.
On the bright side, says the Council for Infrastructure Development, Ports of Auckland would be returned to Aucklanders.
This would give "tremendous access to the waterfront that Auckland doesn't currently enjoy," chief executive Stephen Selwood told Newstalk ZB.
Selwood said the expansion was needed in order to handle the growth of freight volumes.
Comments
Michael Smythe
Interesting that we have increased urban density proposed on land and increased reclamation sprawl proposed for our harbour. Surely other ports with less space available have found ways of working on a smaller footprint. If not, New Zealand designers and engineers should find a way.
Ports used to be interesting places to walk about - my dad and office colleagues frequented the Wellington wharves at lunchtimes in those post-war days of economic growth. The energy of a pulsating city's engagement with trade partners could be palpably experienced if the narrative was made visually explicit and accessible.
We must either embrace the port as an enjoyable part of the Auckland story or extract it.
Margaret Holmes
Sounds like a case of “not in my backyard”
If Auckland wants the benefit of the port it will need to figure out how to compromise. Otherwise I'm sure Tauranga will been keen for more business - provided the captain knows how to read the map!
tonylaloli
move the port to whangarei………they need the work…..sort out the rail and get on with creating a waterfront that actually adds value to the auckland brand.