Dire warnings of traffic chaos

Auckland City's transport politicians faced a barrage of warnings yesterday of traffic chaos around the new Mt Wellington quarry suburb, but blocked a bid for a development moratorium.

Such are concerns about the impact on local streets of the future suburb of 8000 people and a new four-lane road the developers intend building through it that the city council's transport and urban linkages committee decided to hold its monthly meeting in Glen Innes.

There, councillors sat through eight presentations from community representatives, before vowing to redouble efforts for better public transport links between the Tamaki River-edge suburbs and greater Auckland.

Council staff blamed a lack of resources in the Auckland Regional Transport Authority for inadequate public transport when the nearby Sylvia Park mega-mall opened in June, causing traffic jams on the Southern Motorway.

The committee passed a resolution from its chairman, Richard Simpson, that it strongly emphasise the need for all developments in the Tamaki Edge area to be "urban villages dominated by people-oriented environments" with traffic-calming on their peripheries.

But it rejected a proposal by Citizens and Ratepayers Now councillor Doug Armstrong to place a moratorium on all further developments in the area, particularly the quarry, until comprehensive and publicly acceptable traffic and travel options are in place.

Mr Simpson, whose Action Hobson team successfully opposed the eastern highway proposal through the area, said he did not like the idea of the council "interfering with private property rights".

Council planning chief Penny Pirritt said it had no power to block a private plan change by which quarry Landco wants to rezone the remaining two-thirds of the area it needs for residential development. Submissions to the Environment Court close on Monday.

But she said it had been working closely with the company to promote a neighbourhood-sized retail centre rather than "big box" development originally proposed by the previous landowner.

Eastern Bay Community Board transport spokeswoman Heather Stonyer voiced dismay earlier over advice she cited from council traffic modelling that travel times through the area would increase by up to 17 per cent when the new suburb filled up.

Panmure Community Action Group secretary Keith Sharp said locals had faced years of bureaucratic delays such as to the suburb's new railway station, due to open in November, 18 months late.