Auckland wish list exceeds grasp

Mayor Dick Hubbard's plans for Aotea Square include giant outdoor entertainment screens. Picture / Martin Sykes

A grand scheme to "breathe new life" into Auckland's Aotea Square carries a $700 million price tag.

On Monday, Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard unveiled plans for the square that included an underground road, giant outdoor entertainment screens, moving the main city library to the Aotea Centre and an international convention centre - without saying how much it would cost.

A 92-page report on the scheme to be debated by the council tomorrow says there are "significant costs associated with these proposals" but contains no figures.

The cost is buried in another council report to be debated at a separate council meeting tomorrow.

Chief executive David Rankin has issued a stern warning to councillors about the affordability of their 10-year wish list.

The council is committed to spending $2.2 billion on capital projects over the next decade, mostly on renewing existing assets. It is investigating a further $3.7 billion of new works, including $700 million on Aotea Square, $800 million on the revised eastern highway and $350 million on the Wynyard Wharf waterfront development.

Mr Rankin said it was not possible to fund anything like this level of additional projects and some hard decisions and trade-offs would be required. Options included getting out of some council activities, raising rates, road tolls and raiding the balance sheets of council-owned businesses such as Metrowater, which is being pressed for a $50 million special dividend.

His comments are in a report on the council's 10-year strategic plan that aims to make Auckland City a "sophisticated, growing and vibrant international city with a soul".

Mr Rankin has identified the opportunities and potential pitfalls facing the country's largest city, including the likelihood of Auckland being at the centre of a major pandemic and the slow uptake of digital communication technologies.

He also lamented the historic underinvestment in infrastructure, a dig at previous Citizens & Ratepayers politicians who have spent most of the past 50 years running the city.

Mr Hubbard's "Outside the Square" exercise to look at opportunities arising from the $50 million Civic carpark leaky-roof crisis has been criticised by his political opponents, including former mayor John Banks, Mr Banks' former press secretary Cameron Brewer, who is now Newmarket Business Association chief executive, and blogger and former Citizens & Ratepayers Now community board member Aaron Bhatnagar.

Mr Banks said Mr Hubbard was living in fairy land if he thought he could fund this vision and, with Mr Brewer, called on the mayor to stay focused on the basics such as stormwater, wastewater, motorways, public transport, leaky buildings and holding rates to inflation.

Mr Bhatnagar said the council could not afford the folly of shifting the main library from Lorne St.

Big plans

*Auckland City is spending $2.2 billion on capital projects over the next decade - mostly renewing existing assets. A further $3.7 billion on new projects being considered includes:

* $700 million on Aotea Square.

* $800 million on the revised eastern highway.

* $350 million on the Wynyard Wharf waterfront development.