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A public hearing of views on whether Whenuapai Air Force Base should be reserved for a commercial airport has been delayed.
Five days of hearing the Plan 22 change to the Waitakere District Plan were to start on February 9.
But after a meeting yesterday with Defence Minister Wayne Mapp, Waitakere city councillors called off the hearing which had drawn more than 2700 submissions.
Earlier, Dr Mapp told the Weekend Herald that a hearing on an airport zone was senseless.
This was because a Defence paper was going to the Cabinet in March reviewing consolidation of all air facilities at Ohakea in the Manawatu.
Waitakere mayor Bob Harvey said the council wanted all information to be available and would hold off for the March Cabinet decision.
Mr Harvey said the air base and land surrounding it was a vital piece of national infrastructure to keep intact, with its potential to create economic activity and jobs.
"That is why we moved with Infratil and other partners to explore the possibility of commercial development at Whenuapai, when the previous Government announced the Air Force would be moving to Ohakea."
Mr Harvey said the pressure was taken off the council by Dr Mapp's assurances that the Air Force would stay at Whenuapai for the foreseeable future and that its runway would be upgraded.
Opponents of the base having a special airport zone were jubilant at the news yesterday.
"The nightmare is nearly over," said North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams, whose citizens are in the base's flight path.
He thanked Dr Mapp, who is MP for North Shore, for acting on his request to have "this unnecessarily expensive [hearing] process stopped".
He looked forward to the Cabinet lifting "a dark shadow" hanging over residents by giving surety that Whenuapai would stay in military use.
Whenuapai Airbase Action Group chairman Russell Stewart said hearing of the airport proposal became irrelevant after the change of government because National backed Whenuapai staying an Air Force base. However people who had mounted objections for the proposed hearing still faced legal bills.
