KEY POINTS:
The storm clouds over the waterfront this week have not been only of the climatic variety. On Tuesday, Auckland regional councillors daringly cheeked their bureaucratic masters by "requesting" a design competition be held to decide the shape of the Tank Farm redevelopment.
The bureaucrats, who have been doodling away at their own grand visions and masterplans for the area for years, are rather less than amused by this boot in their artistic goolies.
Even the politicians seem so stunned by their own temerity that until now, not a word - either of self-congratulation from them, or of whispered denunciation from the grey ones - has leaked out.
Which is very restrained on all sides because to me, at least, it's the best news from the waterfront in ages.
All it needs now is for everyone of like mind to praise the politicians and strengthen their political backbones for the bureaucratic rearguard action that seems inevitable.
We have Councillor Joel Cayford to thank for raising the resolution - which passed without dissent - at what was to have been a confidential meeting of the regional strategy and planning committee to consider the ARC's submission on the Tank Farm planning applications. Councillors decided the issue would be discussed in open session.
Dr Cayford cites the success of the Britomart precinct design competition and similar contests held for waterfront projects elsewhere in the world, and says Auckland should do the same.
"The plan changes we're being consulted on are all about what we should avoid. It's all planning for what you don't want. The planning for what we do want should come out of a design competition."
Most of us would agree. But for the bureaucrats driving this project, the regional politicians' "request" risks being a giant spanner in their works. Not only have they done all their fancy drawings, but they've drawn up intricate timelines and management/control structures that would be wrecked by a design contest.
Unfortunately, the politicians can only "request" a competition because some time ago, they surrendered day-to-day power over the waterfront to their "banking" arm, Auckland Regional Holdings, which in turn set up Sea and City Projects Ltd to mastermind the area's redevelopment.
Ironic, isn't it, that the politicians who two years ago bravely bought out the 20 per cent of privately owned shares in the port company and returned it to public ownership so we the people could control the redevelopment of the port's land-holdings, continue to get tripped up by men in grey suits? The only difference is that this time, it's their own men.
The politicians want a series of design competitions to fit in with the planned staggered development of the huge site. I think it makes more sense to have a design contest for the whole area. Not only do you then get a co-ordinated vision for the whole area, but you also make the project large enough to tantalise the best designers worldwide.
But even a design contest for the first-stage Jellicoe precinct will fall foul of the ridiculously tight deadlines ARH and Sea and City are proposing.
They're expecting a draft precinct plan to be finalised and submitted to Auckland City Council planners by October 26 and the final plan to be approved by an ARC-ACC joint liaison body by December 12. By April 28 next year they want the more intricate comprehensive area structure plan to be with Auckland City planners, and approved by the liaison body by June 23.
None of this can be achieved if a design contest is called.
So change the deadlines, you might say, if a design contest produces a better result. But that ignores the Rugby World Cup 2011 factor. Hard as it is to believe, the whole redevelopment of Auckland's priceless front door is being programmed to fit in with the drinking needs of a few thousand rugby tourists.
The bureaucrats don't think there are enough bars at the Viaduct Harbour and along Ponsonby Rd to satisfy the lager lout invasion and want more watering holes on the Tank Farm. These are the people who want us to accept their grand visions for the waterfront as a whole.
Me, I go with the politicians who think there might be a design professional who knows better.
