The National Government worked on the northern corridor to identify areas of growth between Hamilton and Auckland and invested $2 billion in the Waikato Expressway.
The current Government will argue that the rail link from Hamilton to Auckland will be transformational, when in fact only a maximum of 150 passengers can access the service at a time.
The original rail programme would have included stops along the northern corridor in the North Waikato.
These have been removed probably due to fears that such stops could mean travellers to Hamilton would miss out on seats, as it could have led to a full train from Auckland to North Waikato and then a near empty train from North Waikato to Hamilton.
A real solution would be extension of the Auckland electric rail network to the North Waikato, to ensure a staged process and effective services.
The Te Awa Lakes residential development is an opportunity to build on this northern corridor. This area is on the left of the Expressway as we enter Hamilton from Auckland.
It's an important entry point to the city and would be a strong advertisement for our successful city.
The Te Awa Lakes residential development, which is proposed to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, would have been a vibrant community hub, delivering 1500 new homes beside the Waikato river.
Under the National Government, Special Housing Areas (SHAs) were created to bring housing to the market more quickly, through an accelerated resource consenting process once they are gazetted.
They are areas of land in the city that can be put forward for housing development by landowners or developers for consideration by the council.
The current Government has stopped the use of SHAs. This directly impacts on the Te Awa Lakes proposal.
The removal of SHAs effectively suffocates the current proposal of Te Awa Lakes that could have been a beacon of a Hamilton that is growing and energised.
Governments have a huge influence on our communities' success and design and their decisions influence our ability to grow and prosper.
The previous National Government had a strong plan for a growing and prosperous future for Hamilton and its northern corridor.