By Louisa Cleave
After a decade of branding itself as the clean, green eco city, Waitakere is heading into the 21st century keen to position itself as a city of industry.
Waitakere City Council planners are quick to point out that fundamental conservation principles will not be thrown out with the waste
water.
But a vision of the city in 10 years gives overall priority to economic growth and job creation.
About 900 people in the community have been asked what they care about in West Auckland, where the city is heading and how they want it to be in a decade.
Deputy mayor Bob Stanic said the city's unemployment rate was second only to Northland's.
The council would encourage new business development by continuing to cut rates for commercial areas, as it had done this year.
Waitakere was starved of income from commercial and industrial development, which contributed just 16 per cent to the rates take compared with up to 50 per cent in other Auckland cities.
Hobsonville and Whenuapai had been pinpointed as commercial growth areas, and Mr Stanic said he hoped the city would become the Albany of the west.
Transport has been closely tied with the employment push, with hopes that more jobs will see more people working and living in the city, easing pressure on the Northwestern Motorway and major arterial routes.
Mr Stanic said he would also like to see amalgamation of Auckland councils into one super city written into the strategic plan.
Ironically, the plan to create more jobs follows a decision to slash the budget of Enterprise Waitakere, the council's business development arm, by a third.
The Enterprise Waitakere board recently suggested that the council undertake a $100,000 brand audit, saying there was concern over the "integrity" of the eco city label.
