Westfield St Lukes expansion decision delayed
stephen October 31st, 2010
Westfield St Lukes Plan Change – Update October 2010
Following the plan change hearings in June 2010, a draft planners report was produced. The report link is http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/council/members/councilmeetings/20100923_1800/CNCL%2D23092010%2DOPN%2DAGD%2D%2312.pdf
The independent Commissioners for Auckland City recommended in the final weeks of Auckland City existence that the plan change to facilitate the St Lukes expansion should go ahead. STEPS had made a comprehensive submission on the impacts on Meola Creek, and we presented at the hearings. As reported in an earlier Blog, we supported the peer review done by Council officers in respect of water issues. One reason we appeared is that it has been made clear to us at Resource consent time that our only hope for being heard is by influencing the plan. The Commissioners report appeared to rely on the evidence from the developer.
See pages 62-64 in the decision for 1 page on water and lava forest. As we read it:
– Stormwater will all be worked out at the appropriate time. Despite the contradictory evidence – Westfield engineer is happy with soakage. And the commissioners agreed.
– Waste water effects will be no more than minor and anyway though the situation is unsatisfactory, this is beyond the control of the applicant so it would NOT BE REASONABLE FOR A PLAN CHANGE TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE LACK OF AN INTERCEPTOR.
STEPS asks Who would need sewerage infrastructure to increase peak waste water flows by 8 times?
We were pleasantly surprised at the final Auckland City Council meeting on 23 September that the council deferred a decision.
STEPS believes that St Lukes Community Association were key to achieving this deferral – see press release at:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1009/S00306/st-lukes-community-applauds-mayoral-leadership.htm
Reporter Bob Dey reported on it as follows:
http://www.bdcentral.co.nz/afa.asp?idWebPage=8338&idBobDeyProperty_Articles=14964&SID=351783881
Later the Auckland City Council wisely decided to leave the decision for the new council – see
http://www.bdcentral.co.nz/afa.asp?idWebPage=8338&idBobDeyProperty_Articles=15078&SID=407944042
STEPS is hopeful that the new City Council will pay more attention to the very real infrastructure issues faced by the St Lukes area and will consider the interests of local residents when they review this plan change.
- Community Interests , Environmental Issues , Press , Resource Consents
- Comments(1)
This is certainly a regrettable decision and does raise questions about how seriously the new City Council intends to be about fixing stormwater and pollution problems in this area. It is not a new problem. A more logical decision would have been to defer consideration of any expansion plans until such time as the proposed interceptor is constructed that is intended to solve the current major problems. Piling on more load to the currently wildly overloaded system just does not seem sensible and lacks common sense. Unfortunately, trunk sewers and core services dont seem to be something town planners want to know about and engineers dont talk to planners…What a mess!