Report back from Civic Trust Seminar on the Northern Gateway

21^st April 2007

What is the Northern Gateway?

The area along the waterfront from the Ferry Terminal to the Railway Station, although some groups looked at the Kaiwharawhara reclamation area as well.

Why look at this area?

Arguments put forward for having a focus on the area included:

• It is one of the last areas of flat land in central Wellington with few landowners and some potential for redevelopment/conversion to other uses.
• Key existing operations (roads, rail, port) are all in the process of changing their needs and designs.
• The area should be an attractive front gate for the City, but is unpleasant and hard to move through.
• Now that the Lambton area is largely sorted, it is time to look further north.

Infrastructure versus other uses

To me a key split in the views expressed during the seminar was between those who saw the infrastructure uses as essential and to be "celebrated" and those who wanted to use any opportunity to move the infrastructure away and convert the area to other uses (e.g. residential dwellings, public open space). There was also disagreement over how much space things like rail would need. Many people were expecting the rail use to get smaller, while a number of others anticipated a need for more space to be needed given the intent to have increased service levels, especially around Kaiwharawhara. The same applied to the port. It was unfortunate that those major landowners didn't come to explain their needs.

In the end, I felt that the seminar concluded that infrastructure was an essential use in the area, and that having much of the area used that way didn't contradict the desire to make the area more attractive and useful for other public uses, or to integrate it better with other parts of the city. It highlighted for me the ignorance about what goes on in the rail and port areas, and the need for those operations to be more visible (open days, interpretation, ability to observe through the fences, etc).

Pedestrian and cyclist issues

These came up from most groups. To me there was a general consensus emerging that better pedestrian facilities were needed urgently, on both sides of the rail yards.

Innovative ideas

Some of the small working groups came up with big (and probably expensive) long term ideas. Those included elevated light rail to Aotea Quay, use of the airspace above the rail yards, creation of new railway stations (e.g. near the ferry terminal), restoration of Kaiwharawhara stream and coast, etc. Some of the official big picture items (e.g. the indoor stadium) were also back on the table.

Need for a plan

 

I felt that it was clear that the earlier planning processes needed urgent update so that short term projects (e.g. roading) don't impede the ability for the other items to be done in future.

 

Paula Warren