Plans for our City's future...B+..with potential for A+

So, like so many other Aucklanders, we too are wading through the various tomes that outline the vision for our region, and our central city (in between watching some great games of footie). This is really exciting times for the city, and there are some fantastic, transformational ideas here, particularly in the Central City Masterplan and the Waterfront Plan.

The emphasis on great design will make fantastic places for people, following hot on the heels of the success of spaces such as Wynyard Quarter, Fort Street and Elliott Street. The idea of the CBD rail tunnel reincarnates something that many Aucklanders lament – Robbie’s dream of a metro system. 

Proposed: A green carpet along the length of Victoria Street connecting Albert Park and Victoria Park

We love many of the ideas. All bold and good transformational thinking. We are heartened that the role of the business and retail sector in the Central City is highlighted, and we know that many of our precincts will flourish with the additional public realm improvements proposed in these plans, and be attractive for the Tourist dollar.

The future of High Street to support the precinct's boutique dining and retail?

If we have concerns, they are around how the fine words and pictures all ‘fit together’ – the need for the transport strategy that will conclude how cars and buses will be accommodated, in a more people focused future. 


The Ports expansion is an important economic driver but we would like to know how our roads would handle a quadrupling the number of container trucks, and how this meets the needs for the future vision of a more downscaled Quay Street. 

The future for Quay Street, but what happens to Port traffic? 

We would like to see the Walking and Cycling across the Harbour Bridge acknowledged in the documents, and feel that Heritage should feature more prominently.

We think these plans are a really good start, and if we had to give it a rating we would give it a B+ pass .. the challenge now is, amongst all of this RWC excitement, that Aucklanders make time to engage in the process and make it into an A+ as the timeline for submissions is perilously short – one month!!

Walking and Cycling on the Auckland Harbour Bridge

Auckland is our gateway to 100% Pure NZ. 70% of tourists enter Godzone via the City of Sails but spend only two nights here – the day they arrive and the day they leave for the smell of sulphur and further afield.

So what’s all this cycling talk about– it’s not as if the penny farthing was invented yesterday but it sure is getting more air time. We are building cycleways the length of the country – that’s where we seem to invest most of our tourism $$$’s.

Here at HOTC we think marrying the commuter and health benefits of cycling in Akld beside our clean green brand has some real merit.  The latest proposal to cling a cycleway onto the Harbour bridge clip ons is inspirational.

So, we’ve been supporting the Pathways Steering Group developing their plans thru a maze of transport engineers and local and central government politicians and their battalions of officers. The boring technical stuff is now all agreed on and we get the growing sense that it is now a real possibility. The plans look great and come with a great lighting show that highlights the bridge across our harbour.

Sure there are some commuter benefits but for us the real win is the tourism bonanza. In San Francisco more than 80% of their international tourists walk the Golden Gate bridge – in fact they have just had to double the size of the bridge bus park and bike hire facilities.

This is a project whose train is running – fast. Take 5 minutes and check out www.getacross.org.nz and tell us what you think.