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• Ambitious plans for downtown Auckland
These issues are part of a new 10-year budget, which includes $7.5 billion of proposed cuts in capital spending and running costs, including less money for parks, swimming pools and libraries.
Planner Dr Joel Cayford said the compensation to Precinct is because the former Auckland City Council pushed through a non-notified resource consent for 471 basement carparks on the site in 2008 without considering the rail link.
What's more, he told the Herald, in 2011 the Auckland Council extended the original consent by Westfield when there was a lot of information known about the rail project.
There were many good reasons for not granting an extension, he said, but the final decision ran to less than one page and was signed off in minutes.
The result was that when Precinct purchased the shopping centre from Westfield in 2012 it was entitled to compensation, he said.
Dr Cayford said compensation of $20 million was a sizeable chunk of the proceeds from the square's sale.
Last night, a council spokesman said any compensation arrangement with Precinct was being addressed by Auckland Transport and the council's property arm, Auckland Council Properties Ltd.
He said the "compensation" component for the land taken for the tunnels was one factor within wider commercial arrangements currently being negotiated within the Precinct development.