Councils urged to limit traffic

Auckland's new transport agency is leaning on the region's local councils to do far more to provide for public transport in land-use growth plans.

First in the firing line is Waitakere City Council, which the Auckland Regional Transport Authority says failed to consult it over planning changes that require the metropolitan urban limit to be pushed north of Hobsonville Rd.

A council spokeswoman said yesterday that it had apologised for the oversight and was working hard with the authority to rectify this.

But the authority is also flexing its muscle over other councils, calling for full transport audits of their own plan changes and for measures such as limits on parking space in growth centres and requirements for developers to produce travel plans to limit traffic volumes.

Waitakere City is under closest scrutiny for wanting to open up large areas for development at Massey North and at Hobsonville, both around the existing village and the peninsula airbase once the Defence Force moves out.

Developer IMF Westfield wants the transport authority's parent body, the Auckland Regional Council, to let Waitakere expand its boundary to allow a $1.2 billion town centre on a 40ha site across Hobsonville Rd from the end of the Northwestern Motorway.

But the transport authority has in submissions to the regional council expressed concern that the timing of "greenfield" growth in the three areas in question may undermine the development of existing centres justifying its hefty investment in the western railway line.

The authority fears uneven and protracted developments of these zones will make them too costly to service with public transport, which would have to be mainly buses but to a lesser extent ferries from West Harbour and the Hobsonville Peninsula.

It says decisions to develop greenfield sites remote from public transport routes "will add significantly to road congestion and delays".

The authority says it is not even clear from Waitakere's plan change notifications what will be the main public transport corridor for the district - the proposed new Upper Harbour motorway from Westgate to Albany, or Hobsonville Rd.

Waitakere City development committee chairwoman Penny Hulse said her council had been a strong supporter of the region's growth strategy, which was aimed at limiting urban sprawl, to the extent that it had left itself too little room.

She said the council had always flagged Westgate as a growth centre, and was simply trying to bring development forward a few years.

Ms Hulse said her council was keen to develop priority bus lanes along new and existing roads, and might require public transport subsidies from developers.

She promised the council would also continue to promote development around railway stations.

ARC development manager Noel Reardon said Waitakere had been asked to supply more information about its metropolitan limit expansion application by tomorrow.

Getting moving

* The Auckland Regional Transport Authority is preparing for more than $1 billion of improvements to the region's rail network over the next 10 years.

* The western line goes nowhere near three new proposed growth areas on the outskirts of Waitakere City.

* The authority wants councils to ensure new developments are close to public transport.