Alex Swney: Waterfront is Auckland's shop window to the world

Alex Swney. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

If a week in politics is a long time, then 69 weeks might as well be forever. This is how long it is until our next local body election.

I mention this because as all the candidates jockey for position in the new super city, I have no doubt that the big issue of this election will be how we make real progress down on our waterfront.

John Key clearly recognises this as he looks to build a link between "party time" at the Rugby World Cup - what's not to like about his catch phrase "party central" - and the construction of a cruise ship terminal on Queens Wharf.

It doesn't matter where in Auckland you come from - Manukau, Waitakere, Auckland, North Shore, Papakura, Rodney or Franklin - we all hold our waterfront dear to our hearts.

Getting it right on our waterfront is an electoral lay down misere.

Generations of Aucklanders, and New Zealanders, have been numbed by the complex and fragmented bureaucratic and political push back against public access to our waterfront. We shake our heads at the growing container park and the industrialisation of our water's edge by cranes two and a half times taller than the ill-fated waterfront stadium.

It seems Aucklanders don't know how to cry out anymore. We don't even know who to cry out to - is it the ARC, is it Council, is it the Ports, or is it one of the seeming morass of council owned acronyms - ARH, ARTA or Sea + City?

It is this very confusion and complexity that is to blame for inaction especially when we have a view that the role of planning here in Auckland is at best the mitigation of negative effects.

Why are the places we are building - or not building - so different from the places we like?

How many of us know about the latest building down on our water's edge - a concrete factory. That's right, as we speak, 18 metres tall and longer than a rugby field, this concrete factory is being constructed on a block of Port land opposite the Vector Arena... but don't worry - it's an architecturally designed concrete factory.

Who was the rocket scientist who negotiated Fletchers out of their six-year lease at the Wynyard Quarter for a 35-year lease in the middle of our waterfront?

The Royal Commission on Auckland's governance was right on the money when it identified our waterfront as the place where we had to start getting it right - in a hurry. They called it our shop window.

Here at Heart of the City we have long activated for a wider waterfront. We have pushed back against the seeming unassailability of the Ports' claims of waterfront domination.

We have watched as dividends have been stripped out of the Ports company by ratepayers (via the ARC) to fund public transport and in doing so threaten their very viability as an ongoing concern.

We have talked about bookending what we have called the people's waterfront in the west with a generous urban park on Wynyard Quarter and on Bledisloe to the east with a large piece of economic infrastructure incorporating a cruise ship terminal.

Ah ha, cruise ship terminal - hot off the press is Government's endeavours to rake the water that is Auckland politics and get some agreement around the funding of a cruise ship terminal, not on Bledisloe, but right in the middle of our waterfront on Queens Wharf, that will also double up as a live site for the RWC.

If this is going to be Auckland legacy of the RWC then it needs to be acting as a catalyst for opening up our waterfront - not privatising more of it.

We have said it time and time again - "Ports to the East, people to the centre and the west."

I have to say if I looked at the waterfront plans on the table today they are disappointing (very). Architects have nobly tried to interpret planning compromises and delivered seemingly graceful bridges but blighted them with high volume bus transport through the Viaduct.

They have whittled-down parkland at Wynyard Quarter and privatised the entry with medium density residential property development, and in the middle at Queens Wharf are currently proposing substantial privatisation with all of the security and quarantine and roading infrastructure associated with a cruise ship terminal - when talking about cruise ship, imagine five jumbo jets arriving at the same time - now that gets one thinking.

How do we get it right (or better)?

* We begin by ending the charade and fixing the ownership. We agree with a single waterfront development agency unencumbered by having to fund public transport.

* We oppose wharf-at-a-time development and support master planning of the whole width of our waterfront - from Wynyard Quarter to Bledisloe Wharf.

* We support linking this 'sunny north facing shop window' with modern clean electric streetcars.

* We support people activated parks on our water's edge - we think waterfront plans where we can get our feet wet.

* We support celebrating our heritage by completing the linkages across the refurbished rolling bridge down there at Te Wero.

* We support building places as opposed to thoroughfares, particularly with a walking, cycling fixed bridge between Te Wero and Jellicoe.

* When we think parks, we are thinking urban parks - they do have buildings of public interest

* We push back against the Ports' plan to double the size of their container park by designing around high-value tourism offerings where our city meets the water.

* This is just a start. It's only called applied commonsense - so why on earth? are we hoping that politics will fix it.

Alex Swney is chief executive of Heart of the City