KEY POINTS:
Aucklanders will stay locked behind their port's red iron fence for at least 10 more years under a Ports of Auckland plans.
The public won't have access to the downtown Captain Cook Wharf for at least a decade and will never get on to Marsden Wharf, which the port company is eyeing for demolition.
The chief executive of the Heart of the City business group, Alex Swney, said yesterday his organisation was ready to fight the public lock-out.
He called on Aucklanders to rise up against a plan he said would be "a tragedy" for the city if it went ahead.
The plan includes:
* An immense reclamation project that would fill in the water and wharves between the Fergusson and Bledisloe container terminals to make them one giant terminal.
* Retaining Captain Cook Wharf as the city's car-importing terminal.
* The demolition of part or all of Marsden Wharf, so the western berth of the Bledisloe Container Terminal can be lengthened.
* Vacating Queen's Wharf, possibly as early as next year.
The plan demands Queen's Wharf be bought from the port at the commercial rate. Auckland Regional Council ratepayers already own the wharf.
The wharf would then need to be redeveloped, again at ratepayers' expense, to be ready for use in 2011 as a cruise-ship berth.
Captain Cook Wharf, jutting into the Waitemata from the end of Commerce St, "could not be made available in the short term" because it and Queen's Wharf were the only suitable wharves for unloading cars, the plan said. One of those wharves would therefore need to be retained until a replacement wharf was built. That was likely to be "at least 10 years" away.
The huge infill between the two major container terminals would bring the port's total industrial zone up from its current 82ha to 115ha. Jellicoe and Freyberg wharves would disappear, and the Bledisloe terminal would reach as far into the Waitemata as the Fergusson terminal does.
The changes would help the port receive far larger vessels. Currently the largest ships visiting the port are of about 4000 20ft-equivalent (6m) unit capacity, but ships of 7000 20ft-equivalent unit capacity are expected in Auckland within five years.
At about 320m in length, those ships are almost as long as the 328m Sky Tower is tall. Their 14m draft is as deep as a bus is long.
Mr Swney told the Herald yesterday that the port's plan aimed only to improve port operations, while giving no consideration to the city's residents or its social and cultural future.
"It's a Third World plan," he said. "There's nothing visionary in it at all. It defies every major city-building trend around the world."
He agreed with plans to reclaim the space between the Fergusson and Bledisloe container terminals. It would remove the port's activities from the city centre and allow longer railway sidings. But keeping Captain Cook Wharf out of public reach so it could remain a drop-off point for imported cars was nonsensical.
"And Aucklanders shouldn't permit one square metre of reclamation if [the port] don't give us Queen's, Captain Cook and Marsden. If they want to be commercial, let's be commercial. Because Aucklanders, and New Zealanders, know [storing cars] is the most ridiculous use of that space."
ARC chairman Mike Lee emphasised the immense work and investment being put into the Tank Farm development, and the efforts being made to have Queen's Wharf a working cruise-ship terminal in time for the Rugby World Cup.
He said the Captain Cook and Marsden wharves were working wharves required for shipping and cargo and were "of vital importance to Auckland's economy".
WHAT PORTS OF AUCKLAND WANTS
* Keep Captain Cook Wharf for at least 10 years as the primary vehicle importing area.
* Demolish Marsden Wharf to allow a longer western berth at the Bledisloe container terminal.
* Reclaim the area between the Fergusson and Bledisloe container terminals.
WHAT HEART OF THE CITY WANTS
* Send vehicle imports to Port of Tauranga.
* Captain Cook and Marsden wharves given to public.
* Create "large tourism generators", including public spaces and events-style facilities, at the two wharves.
