KEY POINTS:
A carparking building is being planned on land earmarked for a new public park at the Tank Farm waterfront development by one of Auckland's richest businessmen.
Mark Wyborn, a major shareholder in private companies with large landholdings at the Viaduct Harbour, Tank Farm and forests totalling more than
$1 billion, has refused to discuss his plans for a commercial and carparking building in Daldy St.
The Herald understands the development follows a falling-out between a private company Mr Wyborn is associated with and the Auckland City Council over new zoning rules for the Tank Farm.
The building includes three split-levels of parking for 154 vehicles on private land that the council wants to buy for a 0.5ha central park and a 40m wide landscaped boulevard the length of Daldy St.
The city council and Auckland Regional Council group of companies leading the Tank Farm development over the next 20 to 25 years also plan to give priority to public transport, walking and cycling over cars.
A source told the Herald that Viaduct Harbour Holdings Ltd (VHHL), which owns about 8ha at the Victoria Park end of the Tank Farm, went along with the central park and widening of Daldy St until a last-minute decision by the council to impose restrictive rules on what the company could do on its own land.
The company's directors, Mr Wyborn and Rob Campbell, are also the directors of Metro Parking Daldy, which has applied to the council for resource consent to build the commercial and carparking building on a temporary carpark site in Daldy St.
Mr Wyborn's office referred the Herald to Mr Campbell, who did not respond to telephone calls and emails about the project.
Council planning general manager John Duthie, who has been working closely with VHHL on the Tank Farm, refused to comment on relations with the private landowner.
Mr Duthie said Metro Parking's application for resource consent had been publicly notified and would be heard by independent commissioners because the council had a vested interest in wanting to buy some of the land for a park and to widen Daldy St. Council officers would write a report expressing a view on the application.
Asked if the council wanted to see this type of development, Mr Duthie said: "It would be quite inappropriate for me to comment."
John Dalzell, the project director for Sea+City, the public company set up to oversee the Tank Farm development, said the vision for the Tank Farm was for a vibrant, mixed-use area with open space, including the 40m-wide green strip down Daldy St.
Mr Dalzell said Metro Parking needed to show that the effects of its carparking building were no more than minor.
Transport planners believed 154 carparks would be more than minor in an area "where we would like to see more people on foot, using public transport and cycling".
The carparking building is the second controversy since the latest plans for open space and greenery at the Tank Farm were unveiled five weeks ago.
A confidential report by Salmond Reed Architects found 17 heritage sites worth preserving but only eight have survived in the masterplan released by the council.