Grant Gillon: Lessons to be learned from Takapuna town centre

Artist's impression of the proposed town square on Anzac Ave car park in Takapuna. Photo / Supplied

COMMENT

Lines are drawn in the sand in the normally sedate beachside centre of Takapuna.

The community is facing off against developers, the business association appears split with many retailers disagreeing with their real estate and building-owner-dominated board. Relations between councillors and the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board are at a low ebb after a motion of no-confidence was passed against the councillors a couple of weeks ago.

The division is often termed a spat over carparking, but nothing could be more cynical. The site of contention is the Anzac St carpark purchased by local business owners and passed over by the council. But, the dispute centres around the best site, size and shape of a town square on the old carpark site. The remainder will be developed as mixed-use retail or commercial and apartments.

The Panuku-championed design was never consulted upon, is seemingly designed to suit development potential rather than a great community outcome and could result in a thoroughfare through which people scurry rather than linger.

Grant Gillon

Both sides of the dispute just seem to want the best outcome for the community. Panuku was given authority to sell the six blocks of land back in 2016 by a motion moved and seconded by the North Shore councillors at the time.

This year, the local board formed a working party with the two councillors and Panuku to try and get the best outcome for the site. The working group met every month and it soon became apparent the group had been established with the aim of keeping the local board "tidy" while Panuku made irreversible decisions.

We were promised public consultation after the design had gone to the Board in July - we asked for a month's grace for this to happen. The delay was denied. We were also promised that Panuku would work closely with the board "on the outcomes and objectives" of the brief, prior to any development material being produced. The tide went out on relations when it was discovered that Panuku had sent out expressions of interest documents to potential developers, without consulting the board or the working group.

Consultation and petitions conducted around 2017 showed 57 per cent of people opposed the sale of the carpark area and 8500 signed a petition opposing the sale. Panuku conducted some further consultation, in 2018, that was later criticised by the council's own Technical Advisory Group as out of scale, inaccurate and prejudicial to the outcome.

Concerned that the proposed public open space in the centre of the site was to be the biggest and most complex project in the board's tenure, it contracted independent advice from Richard Reid Associates (RRA). Last month, both Panuku and RRA presented designs for public open space or a town square, to the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board. Both designs were new and different from those previously seen or consulted upon with the public.

The local board laid out in its resolutions why it favoured the RRA design and the concerns that it had over the Panuku offering. I was concerned that the Panuku design closely matched the expressions of interest documents sent to potential developers, and I became suspicious as to whether the exercise was really to get the best outcome for the community.

The resulting public open space is to be handed over to the local board for land owner authority including the seating, paving and landscaping. Therefore, it is important for the board that we get this right. The Panuku-championed design was never consulted upon, is seemingly designed to suit development potential rather than a great community outcome and could result in a thoroughfare through which people scurry rather than linger.

Grant Gillon. Photo / Supplied

But importantly, we need to learn from this very flawed process. Great outcomes can be achieved when the arms of council work co-operatively with the local community and the local boards. This unfortunately too-common exercise seems to have been about who gets one over the community and local boards.

Paying lip service to consultation and distorting the situation is not the way to approach important projects. It is the way to destroy trust and we need to do better if we are to fulfill our requirements of providing the best outcome for our community, now and in the future.

* Dr Grant Gillon is deputy-chair of the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board and a candidate for 2019 local body elections