$1b Westgate Centre comes step closer

The library and town square, part of the long-planned $1 billion Westgate Town Centre. Photo / Supplied

The long-planned Westgate Town Centre at the end of the Northwestern Motorway is a step closer with approval for a $27-million library and town square.

Westgate, Massey North and Hobsonville are part of a $1 billion development of Auckland's northwest that will eventually accommodate more than 10,000 people and provide business land for much-needed local employment.

The Henderson-Massey Local Board has approved the three-level library building, featuring a state-of-the-art children's section, community spaces, a Citizen's Advice Bureau and cafe built to environmentally sustainable design standards with a green roof and a living wall of plants.

The town square will be a 4500sq m space featuring raised and sunken lawns, a variety of seating, outdoor dining areas and trees.

The project is a stark contrast to the Westgate Shopping Centre just across Hobsonville Rd, with its big box buildings, sprawling carparks, poor pedestrian spaces and lack of greenery.

Henderson-Massey Local Board chairwoman, Vanessa Neeson, and Penny Hulse, Waitakere councillor and Auckland Council deputy mayor, said the $1-billion project, which will get $300 million of ratepayer money, was crucial for the West and wider region.

The library and town square are part of the new town centre being developed by New Zealand Retail Property Group. Once resource consent is obtained, construction of the library could start in April. Plans for the town centre have been on the books for nearly 10 years.

Northwest Auckland is growing so fast that Massey Library, opened nine years ago as part of a leisure centre, is already at capacity and unable to meet future demand from nearby towns. It will close when the new library opens.

At Hobsonville the old airforce base is being developed with 3000 new homes, two new schools, shops, offices and parks.

Part of the harbour front will become a ferry terminal and marine precinct for super-yacht building.

In March 2010, the former Auckland Regional Council moved the metropolitan urban limit north for growth near Hobsonville, Massey and Westgate.