Wellington Waterfront Planning History

I spent Wednesday this week (6th August 2014) buried in Wellington archives investigating the influences, processes and events leading to what we experience on the Wellington Waterfront.

I will provide a few snippets here, though it will take a while before I get this history into the sort of shape I think it needs to be, so we can learn a few things.

1974

But first, in 1974 the then Chairman of the Wellington Harbour Board (WHB) released this little booklet. In this he describes the changing situation for WHB with containerisation. He describes the new reclamations underway, and makes this comment about the older areas of the port: "...this view of the future development of the harbour means that the Harbour Board will for all practical purposes vacate lands on the southern side of Lambton Harbour and will retain only the overseas passenger terminal, some lay-up berths to accommodate ships out of commission.... the land areas of Taranaki street and Jervois Quay could then be released for muncipal purposes. This will be of immense significance for the future of Wellington...."

O'Regan then goes on to argue that WHB should become a planning authority, in terms of the Town and Country Planning Act (TCP). He points out that in respect to reclamations, "...(1) The Crown has the final say in such work; (2)  other local authorities, interested organisations and the general public take no real part in the decision making process...."

He writes: "It can truly be said that the Harbour is Wellington and Wellington is the Harbour..."

1979

The Minister gave public notice, in terms of the TCP of his intention to establish the Wellington Harbour Maritime Planning Area (this was large encompassing the whole harbour out to Pencarrow Head), and called for submissions. Media reports at the time report that it was expected that WHB would be the planning authority for the area, which would appoint a maritime planning committee containing at least 3 from the WHB (from whose numbers would be the chair), a member from the Regional Planning authority, and representatives from "such other" local authorities as the authority and the minister agree. (You can see that Wellington City council was not explicitly included at this stage. About 5 different TLAs had boundaries with the new maritime planning area - but it was of greatest significance for Wellington City Council.)

1981

Wellington City Council planning staff raised concerns internally about being excluded, and representations were made to the Maritime Planning Committee about this, seeking to be included on the committee. The secretary for the Maritime Planning committee replied (25 June 1981):..." while recognising the particular importance of the planning relationship between harbour and Wellington City it must also be recognised that the harbour is a regional resource and that the maritime planning area has a common boundary with five district planning areas, and that as the Authority understands....etc etc, that the Act does not make provision for the separate or special representation of the Wellington City council....etc etc...aware of the special nature of the inter-relationship between the port, the harbour and Wellington City and will expect the formal public processes of developing an integrated regional planning scheme to be assisted and enhanced by a continuation of the less formal and ad hoc consultations between Council and Board that have proved useful in the past.... IE NO - WE DON'T NEED YOU ON OUR Committee!

This went public and both newspapers went into bat for Wellington City Council. On 27 June 1981 The Evening Post headlined: Council must fight harbour board snub, and wrote: "There can be no justification for divorcing the city council, which, in effect, is the voice of Wellington, from its right to a direct say in the future of such a priceless possession as the harbour...". It appears that as a result of representations, a Wellington City Councillor was appointed to the Maritime Planning Committee.

1982-1983

 During this period there were regular meetings of the Harbour and City liaison committee (which had WHB board members and WCC councillors, and staff). The Maritime Planning Committee (MPC) also sought "requests" from various authorities regarding public works and other projects or schemes that should be included in the Wellington Maritime Planning Area. By way of example, Wellington City Council sought inclusion of public walkways along the waterfront. By letter it was advised by the MPC: "...even though you did not include any justification for any pedestrian access in addition to that currently available, this will be referred to the WHMP Authority. Their consideration will be to balance your suggestion with the needs for safety of public.... etc"

1984

This was somewhat of a watershed year. The Wellington Civic Trust had been actively interested in the area for some time. In 1982 Harbour and City Liaison Ctte minutes record that the Civic Trust had offered to organise a design competition for the land: "with particular reference to the better land use of the interface between land and water...". It appears that diagrams had also been prepared by university students which had been presented to the Wellington City Council planning committee.

Significantly, The Wellington Civic Trust wrote to various authorities and individuals on 21 March 1984, inviting them to attend a two day Harbour/City conference to be  held at Michael Fowler Centre on 4th and 5th of July 1984. They write: "...we are trying to limit the subjects covered so that out of the conference a few important recommendations may be made to yourselves and the Harbour Board.....". The conference was chaired by Sir Frank Holmes.

The conference objectives were to achieve as much consensus as possible on:

1. The types, scale and timing of development which should be planned for Wellington's inner harbour;
2.  The organisational and financial methods by which the development can be implemented.

The conference appears to have been very carefully designed and managed with leaders chosen to facilitate sessions and arrive at a number of resolutions which were then provided to WHB and to Wellington City Council for their responses. I have listed these conference recommendations here:

Documentation exists recording how each body responded to this initiative.

1985-1986

This period saw intensive joint work between Wellington Harbour Board and Wellington City Council which culminated in a Joint Venture agreement prepared in association with Chapman Tripp Sheffield Young entitled the Lambton Harbour Development Project.

Under this joint venture agreement, the board and council:

• "agreed to cooperate in the production of a concept plan in respect of Lambton Harbour development....";  
• that the concept plan to "be approved in principle by the Board and Council";   
• that they "desire to proceed with the development...."; 
• that "parts of the land shown in the concept plan are vested in the board and other parts in the council..."; 
• that "in the interests of an integrated and balanced development the board and council wish to make available their respective lands to a joint venture....";  
• "it is the intention of both parties to implement the concept plan to the fullest extent in its provision of open spaces, recreational facilities and other amenities for use and enjoyment by the public which would not otherwise be achievable..."

And here is the map that went with that agreement:

You can click on it to see the detail. Of note is the idea that it describes a single "Combined Planning Scheme Area", and of course that the area is to be managed jointly by WHB and WCC. The combined planning area includes reclaimed land, wharves, and an area of sea.

1987

Gabites Porter and Partners prepared the Lambton Harbour Combined Scheme for the area. The cover of the document contains this conceptual rendering of the area, which includes various of the ideas that were included in, or envisaged by, that scheme:

For reference, I include here a Google image (obtained today) of the same area:

 1987-1991

There was a major financial crash in 1987. Recovery took some years, and not a lot of development occurred in the area. I will describe the period in more detail in a later posting. But what is of interest to the direction of this posting is what happened to all of this planning with the passage of the Resource Management Act in 1991.

1992

In 1992 a major review of the Lambton Harbour Combined Scheme was conducted. This was conducted by a large multi-disciplanry team of planners, urban designers, WCC councillors and WHB board members. It endorsed the aims and objectives of the 1986 study, and emphasised that the project needed to be implemented as a whole. The document contains a fascinating discussion about the implications of the RMA: how it would seek to draw an "arbitrary" line at Mean High Water Spring, "through the centre of the project". It makes strong statements about the need for implementation to be integrated in accordance with the combined plan.

Wellington worked together and obtained central government permission for this project to be planned and implemented in an integrated way, through jointly established agencies and mechanisms.

Rather different from the piece-meal, divide and rule approach we have suffered from, and continue to suffer from, in Auckland.