KEY POINTS:
This is the first view of the new-look Eden Park. The final resource consent application for the planned upgrade of the park was filed with the Auckland City Council last month and is open for public comment.
Changes to two previous plans which were not publicly notified include
re-siting the transport hub to the southwest corner of the site, removing the proposed coach layby and adding 10,000 temporary seats above the east and west stands.
Eden Park Neighbours Association chairman Mark Donnelly said he was pleased to see the final plan after "eight months of uncertainty".
"There have been multiple changes to the plans which has been frustrating," he said. "What the residents want is some certainty, to know what's going to happen and not have to have all these plan variations turning up."
Donnelly said a newsletter would go out to residents in the next week.
"A lot of the stuff is very technical. Once we've got our heads around it we can summarise it for them and sort out what our issues are."
Reduced car parking, the loss of a promised public park, the transport hub resiting, fewer plaza areas, changed entry and exit points and traffic and pedestrian flow were among his concerns.
"Hopefully these issues can be resolved through consent conditions or design. Generally our concerns are not Rugby World Cup issues, they are more to do with how the stadium will operate after that. How the stadium will run for the next 20 years."
Donnelly said the visual plans had not changed much since the first resource consent application was filed.
He was critical of the way the consents had been managed.
"We don't understand why this wasn't done in one hit. It could have been done better.
"People have become wary and uncertain, not knowing what the final plan would be. And the way they have tried to deal with the mitigating factors of having a major commercial operation in the area could also have been handled better."
Donnelly said offering neighbours worst affected by the shading of the redevelopment $5000 compensation to purchase heat pumps was a good example.
"But we are glad that now we know what's there and what's not we can finally sit down and concretely decide what our issues are."
Spokesman Stephen Farrell said the Eden Park Residents Association was also considering the final plan and would meet as soon as possible to discuss their issues.
He had not seen the latest plan but said the group would definitely make a submission to the city council on the consent application.
"Because the previous consents have not been [notified] it has been hard to know what's happening."
Adam Feeley, Eden Park Redevelopment Board chief executive, said this would be the last variation on the upgrade plan.
He said the resource consent applications had to be filed in three stages to ensure Rugby World Cup deadlines were met.
"If we hadn't done it in three stages we would have been watching the World Cup in Sydney," he said.
"We would have missed our construction deadlines if we had done it in one hit. The first two consents were non-notified as they did not require any public hearings. But the third one has a much longer time frame."
Feeley said he was glad the final consent application was filed and believed the design put forward would be acceptable.
"There is not a lot in there that is different design-wise. It's more about traffic issues and the bus terminal. There will be a wee bit more discussion... but hopefully it's going to be relatively uncontentious."
