New town raises fear of traffic nightmare

Traffic issues from the huge Mt Wellington quarry development need addressing before houses are built or local roads in the eastern suburbs will be flooded with thousands of vehicles, say politicians.

The "pro-growth" Citizens & Ratepayers Now ticket yesterday called on the council to hold off supporting a plan change to build 2500 homes in the quarry until it had dealt with the traffic issues.

Residents on all sides of the quarry fear a new four-lane road through the quarry will become a de facto extension for the revamped eastern corridor, funnelling thousands of vehicles through Panmure, St Johns, Meadowbank, Kohimarama, Remuera and Orakei.

Despite these concerns, the council has given its backing to rezone the 110ha site from quarrying to a mix of residential, business and open space.

The landowner, Landco, plans to publicly notify a plan change to rezone the land in the next month.

Landco already has approval for about 300 sections on the edge of the quarry but the plan change will cover the remainder of the quarry, including 2200 homes, a commercial centre, school and 9ha of open space.

The first sections are due to be built on this summer and the quarry is expected to fill up over the next six years.

When completed, it will house a population of between 6000 and 8000 people.

C&R Now councillor Scott Milne said yesterday the political decision to can the eastern highway meant there was no new route for traffic to get into the city from Panmure.

That meant finding an alternative for the 8000 people living in the quarry, up to 30,000 people using Auckland Netball's new 29-court complex at Mt Wellington on a Saturday, Auckland University's expanding Tamaki campus and the huge new Sylvia Park shopping development.

Mr Milne said that the Auckland and Manukau councils were planning a revised eastern corridor as far as Panmure but not enough work had been done on what happened to traffic at the Panmure end.

Another C&R Now councillor, Doug Armstrong, said the council should not be supporting the plan change until it was absolutely confident the traffic issues had been dealt with.

The council should be using its leverage at this stage to negotiate a better financial contribution from the developer to solve the considerable traffic issues and not "get into bed with a developer who is going to cause a whole lot of problems", he said.

Deputy Mayor Dr Bruce Hucker said the plan change allowed for financial contributions from Landco for road works outside the quarry, including the reconfiguration of College Rd and Lunn Ave.