Fast track means dumping review

Ports of Auckland. Photo / Brett Phibbs

One revised option is to reclaim 179m of the harbour to extend Bledisloe Wharf.

Auckland councillors are being urged to effectively dump a review of port development options in favour of fast-tracking the latest expansion plans into law.

Following last year's Herald campaign against further reclamation of the Waitemata Harbour, the council promised to model a range of development options for the port. The work was intended to look at port operations, transport issues, the port's effect on the city's urban form and alternative port locations.

The results were not expected to be completed in time for the council's unitary plan, to go out for formal notification in September.

Instead, it was anticipated that any future plans to reclaim more of the harbour would have to go through a separate process after the unitary plan becomes law in 2016 or 2017.

Senior council officers are now recommending the review does not go ahead - at least for several years - and the port's latest expansion plans be inserted in the unitary plan where they will be subject to a full statutory consultation process.

"Council should focus its efforts on developing a sensible policy direction for reclamation provisions within the port precinct to inform the unitary plan," economic development officers said in a report to councillors.

They said the review could be undertaken later, but pointed out that it could take several years and provide no significant benefits. Officers said a Ministry of Transport study of future port infrastructure options, including a single national major port, could supersede the review.

Heart of the City chief executive Alex Swney said the unitary plan should not be used as a "Trojan horse" to advance the port's latest expansion plans.