Words that stopped the big V8s

The independent commissioners who turned down plans for V8 Supercar street racing in downtown Auckland acknowledge it would have been popular.

It could have attracted visitors to the region and city for seven years from 2006.

And it could have generated significant positive economic benefits for some parts of the community.

But in turning down the application for a resource consent - lodged by events manager International Management Group (NZ) Ltd and the Auckland City Council - the three commissioners expressed serious doubts about many aspects of the race site.

In their 17-page decision, the commissioners say the racing would cause serious traffic problems which they doubt could be resolved.

They also single out the noise before, during and after the race days and other effects on nearby areas.

And they say that rather than causing disruption only for three days of racing a year, the event would cause significant disruption during five weeks of set-up before the races and for three weeks after them.

Among the observations and findings in the commissioners' decision:

The application

The application was for a racing circuit comprising the inner city streets of Fanshawe, Hobson, Victoria and Beaumont. Victoria Park was an integral component.

Fanshawe Street is the main downtown Auckland route to and from the Auckland Harbour Bridge. Hobson St is the main inner city route to the Southern and Northwestern Motorways.

As well as the circuit, the racing needed other services and facilities. These included road closures, pit tents, crash barriers, debris fences and runoff areas.

Security fences, grandstand seating, food, ticket and merchandise kiosks and toilets would be set up.

There were also to be pedestrian overpasses, fuel storage, an emergency helipad, signs around the circuit and entertainment in Victoria Park.

To set up all the facilities would take five weeks before the event.

The racing would be held over three days, including a weekend, and it would take three weeks to dismantle everything afterwards.

Temporary changes would have been required to the street layout, including removal of raised medians, traffic lights, bus shelters and some street trees.

The commissioners' task was to assess the effects of the event and balance them against the continued orderly and efficient operation of the motorway and street network servicing Auckland's central business district and against the inner city living environment.

In terms of the race effects, they found that the most significant was traffic, with effects spread widely beyond the immediate vicinity of the circuit. Noise rated the second worst, followed by effects on Victoria Park, the Western Reclamation and the immediate environs of the circuit.

Traffic

The North Shore bus routes which use Fanshawe, Halsey, Victoria and Albert streets would have to be re-routed to enter and leave the motorway at Fanshawe St, and then go through Beaumont St, Gaunt St, Viaduct Harbour Drive and Customs St West to the Britomart terminal.

This route would also have to service the whole of the Western Reclamation.

Several related issues were raised in relation to this diversion, including the ability of streets and intersections to handle the extra traffic.

Other issues were coping with the influx of race patrons to and from the site, adjustments to the public transport system, and ways of re-routing traffic from the downtown area to the North Shore.

Another worry was the ability of Ponsonby Road to handle traffic unable to get to central Auckland by going down College Hill, maintenance of the area's pedestrian network, and adjustments to traffic spreading widely beyond the immediate area of the circuit.

The commissioners raised a "distinct prospect of gridlock" in particular, the Wellington St/Howe St/Union St area, in conjunction with the Pitt St/Union St/Nelson St and Hobson St areas.

They found changes in traffic forecasts for the area reassuring but said they "still raise the spectre of wrong assumptions and conjecture".

And they said a great deal of emphasis was being placed on estimates of how much traffic could be "suppressed".

That involved reducing traffic volumes to a level where the street/motorway system could cope with a major interchange and key parts of the Central Business District road system out of action.

The APEC conference and the Americas Cup were cited to the commissioners as examples that this approach would work. They were not convinced.

"We consider that the scale of this event is hugely different in scope and time from those events and therefore the examples are not truly relevant," they found.

And even if the traffic suppression levels could achieved, considerable queuing and congestion would be encountered on the feeder roads to the motorway and beyond.

The initial hearing was dominated by the opposition of Transit New Zealand, the North Shore City Council and others to the traffic forecasts and the survey required to verify the necessary reduction in traffic was achievable.

The chief executive of Transit New Zealand said later that an extraordinary effort and the agreement of all Auckland cities would be needed to reduce the effects on the motorway and connections into central Auckland. .

"We have not been provided with any evidence that such agreement would be forthcoming,"the decision says.

It said North Shore City's position was equivocal, and although the city had said its view was the same as that of Transit, "this was not appropriately identified to us by way of evidence".

"The council's position we have accepted was that the plans were heavily reliant on the suppression of traffic and would require an extraordinary high level of planning if the race is to occur without substantial adverse effects."

Even if these levels were appropriate for the event in 2006, likely increases in traffic volumes meant it could not be assumed they would remain so for the seven-year duration of the consent. The commissioners said there was no substantive evidence on what would happen if the forecast levels of traffic reduction were not achieved.

Other traffic effects

Pedestrians

The commissioners were concerned that the pedestrian network in the area would be affected during the race days but also said the five-week establishment of the circuit and the three-week break-down time were potentially more disruptive for pedestrians than the V8 races.

Public Transport

The decision said that the amount of public transport going the Western Reclamation bypass during the V8 races would be considerable. Marshalling this - with commercial traffic in and out of the Western Reclamation, and with spectators to the V8 races - "seems to us to present significant difficulties."

Motorway works

Concerns were raised at the hearings about the likely effect of the races on completion of the motorway network, in particular the Harbour Bridge to City upgrade which includes another four lanes, either beside the present Victoria Park Viaduct or under the park.

The commissioners said that the event should not impede these works, or any other motorway improvements.

Noise

Noise from the races and from construction of the circuit was judged the second major effect of the V8 event.

"While we accept that the construction noise can be subject to appropriate conditions, there is no escaping that the noise contours associated with the event exceed district plan provisions," the commissioners said.

"All of the evidence confirmed this.

"Other than the noise from the competitors' vehicles, the other event noise is, in our view, considerable.

"This includes the operation of the PA system throughout the circuit, entertainment between events that is typically provided on the circuit, the entertainment at Victoria Park, and finally, aircraft noise.

"Although these could be dealt with by management plans under a condition of consent, they are significant in a cumulative manner."

The commissioners noted that the Auckland City Council's noise consultant believed the overall effects of noise would be a significant adverse effect and must be treated as such when weighing up the overall effects.

The commissioners found proposals from the applicants to reduce the effect of noise for residents and businesses in the race area were limited and selective.

And they did not take into account further building development and a change of character in the vicinity of the circuit, including the Western Reclamation.

Other effects

People in the area

The commissioners found that while the applicants had consulted many of those adversely affected by the event, this was not consistent through the area.

Overall concerns from the St Marys Bay Residents Group, representatives of Beaumont Quarter and several individuals, showed conclusively that considerable disruption would be caused by the event and its five week set-up and three week break-down times.

"We have concluded that while these effects may be able to be tolerated for the three-day event by some [people], adjustments to routines during the set-up and break-down will be extensive and disruptive to many. Parking and property access are two such disruptions."

Western Reclamation

The commissioners also mention the concerns of the Western Viaduct Tenants and Ratepayers Association and others, who saw the V8 races as a significant impediment to their businesses.

The public transport bypass through the Western Reclamation posed a potential for traffic congestion and jams, and bus stops would have to be changed. Commercial traffic and customers of businesses in the area would want access to the area, which would also be used as a loading and unloading area for race spectators coming from the North Shore on public transport. The Western Reclamation was also an area of mixed uses, including the storage of bulk hazardous materials which made it a high risk area.

The applicants, with the NZ Fire Service, proposed that should any incident involving hazardous materials arise in the area, then the circuit would be shut, giving the Fire Service access to the area.

"On the surface, this seems reasonable," the commissioners said. "But we are concerned about the practicality of this, bearing in mind that the number of patrons at the event is estimated to be in the vicinity of 60,000 on race days."

This figure did not include all those running the event.

The proposal also did not take into account the number of vehicles congesting the streets in the area, the central business district and the Western Reclamation itself.

 

Victoria Park

The decision criticises the applicants' "simplistic analysis" of the use of Victoria Park between sporting code seasons and for informal recreation.

It adopts a submission from Catherine Hawley saying that demand for open space in the city was increasing.

The report said Victoria Park's four sportfields were used extensively all year round for active recreation, the main codes being cricket, touch football, rugby, rugby league and soccer.

A petanque court, children's playground and skate park were also heavily used, and an area was leased for bowling greens.

Walkers and joggers used the pathway around the park, and part of the park was a dog exercise area.

About 50,000 people a year used Victoria Park for active recreation and probably a similar number used it for passive recreation. Demand to hold temporary events in the park was high, but few could be accommodated because of the heavy use of the park.

"We are concerned that the progressive development of the V8 event over the set-up and break-down period ... is likely to have an adverse effect on its usage by the public," the commissioners said.

"The set-up and break-down of the circuit around the park and the facilities to be established within it will effectively make it an island.

The applicant's proposals to maintain public access do not, in our view, avoid the impression that the park will be a large construction site and that this impression will discourage public access."

Benefits

The commissioners say the retail, accommodation and entertainment industries would have gained the benefits from the races, without feeling the adverse effects.

Those would have fallen on the nearby residents, in particular, of Freemans Bay, St Marys Bay, Ponsonby and Herne Bay, as well as the residents and businesses of adjacent properties, who would have faced the greatest disruption to their daily life.

But they would not be the only citizens significantly affected.

Areas next to motorway on-ramps to the North Shore would also have been affected by traffic delays, which would have had have 'the potential to be of enormous consequence.'

Citizens throughout the region wanting to do business in or near downtown Auckland would have had to carefully weigh up their prospects before making a business, educational, medical or even a recreational trip.

They concluded: "The proposal as it stands has the possibility to strain the goodwill of the citizens of the region to a degree never tested before."

That disruption would not only be during the days of the races but to a lesser but significant, degree before and after the events.

The commissioners said a suggestion that people should pack up and get out of town if the noise and disruption of the event became too great was an extraordinary means of mitigating the adverse effects of an event and simply not acceptable in the context of the race application.

Planning

The commissioners said that throughout the hearing they had been disturbed at the limited extent to which the effects of the V8 races were evaluated against the policies and objectives of the regional and district plans.

They also said there was no doubt the effects of the event would be major and external.

"When this is considered in the context of our concern and uncertainty of the assumptions in relation to traffic suppression, the noise and the other consequences of the event, we have assessed that the negative effects of the race this particular circuit outweigh the positive effects, such that there are significant actual and potential effects that cannot be mitigated.

"Accordingly ... the application is declined."

Finding

The commissioners said they were satisfied the proposal put forward would not promote the sustainable management of natural and physical resources as required by the Resource Management Act 1991.