$7m Ponsonby site bought to provide 'civic square'

The site, currently occupied by a liquor store, on the corner of Ponsonby Rd and O'Neill St.

Ponsonby is to get a city square in its cafe belt after the Auckland City Council bought the site of a liquor store for about $7 million.

The purchase of the 2347sq m site on the corner of Ponsonby Rd and O'Neill St has caused a stir, with some councillors calling it a "once in a lifetime opportunity" and others claiming greater need elsewhere for parkland.

The site will not be developed until 2009, when Liquor King's lease expires and the nondescript 1960s building it occupies is knocked down. Plans for the site will go out for consultation in 2008.

Arts, community and recreation committee chairwoman Penny Sefuiva said the site could be turned into a "city square" for things like market days and festivities. The long narrow site, which stretches down O'Neill St, could be subdivided at the back for housing, where 915sq m is zoned residential 1.

Penny Sefuiva, who is also a Western Bays councillor, said the council had been on the lookout for more open space in Ponsonby for some time.

Two other sites were identified for possible purchase. A commercial site next to Prego restaurant was dismissed because it lacked two road frontages for non-open-space development and a vacant site on the corner of Pember Reeves St and Ponsonby Rd was owned by a family trust and not for sale.

Eden-Albert councillor Neil Abel said the purchase was done with a "bit too much haste" when there were probably other parts of Auckland with a greater need for open space. Another Eden-Albert councillor, Glenda Fryer, welcomed the purchase of any new open space, but said her ward had the lowest amount of open space in the city and two proposals this term for purchase in the ward had been rejected.

The $7 million purchase has been funded from a combination of financial contributions made in Western Bays and citywide development contributions.

The council has budgeted $106 million from development contributions over the next 10 years to provide 31ha of open space. In this council term, 17 properties comprising 3.3ha have been bought at a cost of $17.2 million.