A good day....A very good Day

After three long days deliberating on the Unitary Plan there was some merciful relief when the much vexed issue of the Ports expansion arrived on the agenda.

The Mayor led out with two new amendments that fairly and squarely set a new landscape for this debate. He set a new ‘default’ position not only calling for the definitive study on the Ports and the implications for Auckland beyond their red fence but went a step further in an impassioned speech when he declared that there would be no further reclamation's by strengthening the planning status of the area around the Port declaring that any expansion would be a “non-compliant activity.”

The meeting understood that it was about more than any plans for reclamation and that it was just as much about how we handle the substantial growth in containers through the city – a city where the Unitary Plan is supporting substantially increased density. Chair of the Takapuna Devonport Local Board, Chris Darby summed it up and received some relief from a rather dour meeting when he warned about a huge increase of freight trains rumbling through Orakei and the “vibrations in the Orakei china cabinets.”

He has heard Aucklanders desire for something better on our waterfront and responded emphatically.

Heart of the City is one of many groups that have been actively campaigning on this issue alongside Ngati Whatua, the NZ institute of Architects, Committee for Auckland, the Urban Issues Group, Westhaven Users Assoc and the Auckland Architecture Assoc. for Council to push the pause button on the Ports agenda to rush expansion plans through the Unitary Plan process. Alex Swney of Heart of the City describes this as a “red letter day for Auckland and quite possibly one of the defining decisions of Len Browns Mayoralty so far. There is still some way to travel in this process but today’s decision could be as defining for Auckland as the progress being made on the City Rail Loop.”

Alex