Tank Farm talks fail to reach deal

The Auckland Regional Council will lead the Tank Farm development on the Auckland waterfront after negotiations for a joint venture with Auckland City Council collapsed.

A disgruntled Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard yesterday said the talks were a sham and meant the ARC would have to "open its chequebook" to pay for public open space on the headland.

"We are fighting on behalf of the public, who have given a very clear message they want the space, but the ARC have to be prepared to come to the party in terms of funding. [ARC chairman] Mike Lee can't go round promising lots of open space and expect the ratepayers of Auckland City to pay for it," Mr Hubbard said.

He said the ARC indicated they were interested in a joint venture but set an "unrealistically high" price that he was not prepared to commit ratepayers' money to. The approach of the ARC family, including its investment arm, Auckland Regional Holdings and Ports of Auckland, bordered on "intransigence", he said.

The ARC controls 20ha of the 35ha Tank Farm area, including the prime 8ha of headland, through its 100 per cent ownership of Ports of Auckland.

Mr Lee said the ARC had proposed a shore-to-shore park on the headland, which was bigger than the "skinny little park" proposed by Auckland City.

"We have offered to pay for that and Dick is well aware of it," Mr Lee said.

The ARC had decided to move the Tank Farm land from the ports company to a separate development entity controlled by Auckland Regional Holdings.

"The joint venture went on for some time and became highly complicated. This will simplify things enormously," Mr Lee said.

He said it would be better to have a regulator-developer role where Auckland City was the regulator and Auckland Regional Holdings the developer.

Mr Hubbard said the ARC was also a regulator in charge of contamination and coastal issues at the Tank Farm.

Auckland City needed to have a role beyond a straight regulator. Overseeing the plan change to rezone the land from industrial to mixed use was a blunt instrument for controlling the Tank Farm and did not give the finesse of controls to create a world-class waterfront.

"Plan changes don't give you control over timing, control over aesthetics and resolving unforeseen things as they come up," Mr Hubbard said.

Mr Lee suggested Mr Hubbard look in his own back yard: "If only they were as hands-on with the other developments around town we would have a much more aesthetically superior city. Some of the planning messes we have seen in recent years, particularly Quay Park, could have done with a lot more hands-on attention from Auckland City."

The parties are now investigating a joint management plan that would see Auckland City playing a role in the development.