Wayne Brown extends olive branch to developer as work gets under way to shift port

Mayor Wayne Brown. Photo / Michael Craig

Auckland Council will begin working on its joined-up transport plan this week, Mayor Wayne Brown said, announcing simultaneous moves to begin work on a linked-up transport plan as well as a plan to shift the port of Auckland from its downtown site.

Part of the work involves Brown extending the olive branch to Eke Panuku, a council-owned organisation that acts as a developer, and which Brown has been staunchly critical of in the past. Brown now wants it to be given the job of developing land occupied by the port.

“Eke Panuku has its critics, including me, but no one disputes it did a very good job with Wynyard Quarter. I am recommending to the Governing Body that it be given the job of doing even better with the port land, to deliver to Auckland by 2039 the most beautiful and loved publicly owned waterfront of any harbour city in the world,” Brown said.

The move comes after an agreement between Brown and Transport Minister Michael Wood to put aside their differences and work collaboratively on the pair’s priorities, which include shifting the port for Brown, and building light rail for Wood.

The pair agreed to look at these options as part of a joined-up transport plan for the city.

Brown said Auckland Council’s Governing Body will begin work this week towards that plan to build Auckland a “high-quality, joined-up transport system”.

“We’ve got an obligation to Aucklanders and the minister and Government to get on with it, this side of Christmas.”

At this week’s Governing Body meeting, Brown will propose a plan to give effect to the detente with Wood.

Part of this will be through letters of expectations sent to Auckland Transport (AT), Port of Auckland Ltd (POAL) and Eke Panuku.

For POAL, Brown will ask it to “support him, Auckland Council, Eke Panuku and other stakeholders in a council-led process to be launched early in 2023 to plan for the return and development of the waterfront land it currently uses, from 2024 through to 2039″.

Brown plans to propose a “staged, long-term transition, including to provide medium-term job security, but clear dates and milestones are required to inform central Government’s draft New Zealand freight and supply chain strategy to be published by June next year, and allow for infrastructure investment decisions to be made by central and local government and the private sector”, according to a press statement.

Brown wants to rope in KiwiRail to help with a proposal to move the port to a “100 per cent rail solution as soon as possible” to reduce truck congestion on Auckland’s roads.

Brown also intends to propose ruling out further dredging of the Waitemata Harbour or Rangitoto Channel, except that required for maintenance, and any further extension of the port’s footprint northward towards Devonport.

The mayor wants a permanent international passenger terminal and coastal shipping services in the Auckland central city after 2039, but the rest of the port’s land to be returned. POAL will be asked to discuss how much land would need to be kept to provide those services and how it plans to continue to run a profitable business as land is returned.

“We will listen to POAL and all stakeholders over the details of the transition arrangements, but no one should doubt that change is coming to how Auckland uses its waterfront land,” Brown said.

Brown’s proposal for a letter to Auckland Transport will ask it to reduce the organisation’s cost to council and for it to reduce its footprint in Auckland, by taking up less space with traffic cones.