KEY POINTS:
Sometimes you just can't keep a good idea down. Yesterday, National Party North Shore MPs Jonathan Coleman and Wayne Mapp floated the suggestion that the Navy move its inner harbour Kauri Pt ammunition dump to Whangaparaoa to make way for a coastal regional park stretching from Chelsea sugar refinery to Beach Haven.
I'm all for it, but hadn't I seen it all before? I had. Scratching though my files, out fell a map from the 80s - the 1880s that is - showing "Plan of proposed public park, Kauri Point, Waitemata Harbour". It was signed by four trustees, the Mayors of Auckland, Birkenhead and Devonport and the chairman of the Auckland Harbour Board.
Fast forward a century to April 1977, and the now-defunct Birkenhead Borough Council was outlining to the Auckland Regional Authority the possibilities for an urban regional park at Kauri Pt, incorporating defence, harbour board, sugar refinery and existing park land.
Just a few weeks back, after a 10-year campaign, this dream came a giant step closer to fruition when Chelsea Sugar agreed to sell 36.7ha of its refinery land to the Chelsea Park Trust for $20 million. It will become a key part of a planned great park - Uruamo - stretching around the inner harbour coast.
Now, out of the blue, comes Dr Coleman and his colleague, suggesting it's maybe time for the Navy, who moved into the area in the run-up to World War II, to move on.
The trigger for the Shore MPs' call for a review was the recent admission by the Navy that of the 41 explosive storehouses at Kauri Pt - the entry point for most shipments of bulk ammunition for the armed forces - only two were in good condition.
Of the rest, 30 were in a poor or very poor state. A leaky roof led to $121,000 of naval shells being written off. Upgrading the perimeter security fence would cost around $500,000, while replacing the leaky storehouses could cost $11 million.
The MPs say that before this money is spent, moving the ammunition store to defence land at Whangaparaoa and building a new deepwater wharf should be considered.
Dr Mapp, National's defence spokesman, said that given the talk of "tens of millions", there should be an independent review to see whether the money is best spent at Kauri Pt "or is Whangaparaoa a realistic option?" He says "it would be a wonderful opportunity to have a coastal park extending right around" but "if the independent review says they have to stay there, then that would be my view".
Dr Coleman, who kayaks around the area in his spare time, says: "I'm looking at it from the point of principle that it's public land, what's the best future use for it before sinking more funds into it? They're not making any more land so it's an opportunity maybe to secure something that's of public benefit."
He said he hadn't thought of "the technicalities" of whether the Navy should be compensated, or by whom.
"I would take the perspective: look, it's public land, it's already owned by the public of New Zealand, so what's in their best interests ... what would be the best possible use of this land?"
Dr Coleman knows what he wants. "You could create a coastal walkway there which would become a fantastic facility."
He said that with increasing intensification on both sides of the harbour, there was a need for a regional park-like facility "right in the city".
Given the drawn-out court battle North Shore City fought a decade ago to stop the Navy selling off "surplus" former reserve land in Narrow Neck to top up its coffers, one can only admire the MPs' confidence.
Dr Mapp says they have learned a lesson from that episode. He also says there are only two options in the proposal. Either a public reserve on Kauri Pt, or the Navy stays. Housing, he says, is out.
That old map I unearthed is a reminder that we can all dream. What we have to wait and see is whether this one comes to life in National's upcoming election manifesto.
