Major land buy-up for bus project

The Auckland City Council will buy up to 290 homes and businesses over the next 12 years so it can widen Dominion Rd for better bus services and pave the way for light rail.

The $52 million project is due to start in July after a lengthy statutory process. The new council is strongly committed to boost what is one of the city's most successful bus routes.

Dominion Rd, a 5km straight road from Mt Roskill through Balmoral and Mt Eden to Ian McKinnon Drive at the city end, has long been designated a key transport route, first for a motorway in the 1950s.

Bus patronage jumped 75 per cent over four years when bus lanes were installed in 1998.

Under the new passenger transport designation, the council will widen much of the road between 1m and 2m.

Opposition to the demolition of buildings in the Valley Rd and Balmoral shopping centres has led to deviations off Dominion Rd for public transport. Land will be bought for links to the western railway line at the city end and the proposed Avondale-Southdown line alongside State Highway 20 at Mt Roskill.

Informally, the council is looking to put Balmoral Rd under the present intersection at Dominion Rd to improve traffic flows and revitalise the tired Balmoral Rd shopping area. The council has until 2016 to complete the $52 million project or the designation will lapse.

Eden-Albert councillor Glenda Fryer said it was five years since the council notified the project, the previous council had put it on hold and there would be a lot of people who "might be blissfully unaware of what was going on".

She said there were bound to be renewed divisions in the community - the proposal attracted 141 submissions in 2000 and 10 appeals to the Environment Court - but believed it was an important public transport project that one day could lead to light rail using Dominion Rd.

Principal transport planner Denis Mander said the council would inform the 1300 property owners along Dominion Rd about the project, starting with a major upgrade of bus stop facilities and streetscape improvements. Stage one, over the next two to five years, required the purchase of 32 homes and two commercial properties.

Mr Mander said up to 290 properties would be bought by the council but only about 20 of those would be demolished or partly demolished.

Of the $52 million cost, $46.5 million was for land acquisition and $5.5 million for construction. The council has budgeted a further $1.5 million to relocate power, telephone and other services.

Stage two, from about 2010 to 2013, involved most of the road widening.

Tom Newnham, who has lived on Dominion Rd near Potters Park for 30 years, said he supported the project in principle but would like more information from the council and compensation for the effect on his streetscape.