Executive Summary
1. These submissions address the need to protect and maintain the internationally recognised
waterfront legacy that has been planned for and implemented over the past ten years at the
redeveloped part of Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter, and the need to plan for and provide appropriate
land and coastal resources so that Auckland can reliably host and accommodate marine events in
future such as the Volvo Ocean Race and the America’s Cup.
2. Many different uses – including marine and fishing activities, residential developments,
commercial and retail developments, restaurants and entertainment, events, public open spaces -
compete for space and amenity on city centre waterfronts. The competing, changeable and
sometimes conflicting demands for these uses can lead to reverse sensitivity issues and other
environmental effects, all of which need to be carefully balanced and managed through robust and
reliable land use planning and regulation frameworks built up over time through stakeholder and
public participation.
3. While the current application to host America’s Cup syndicate bases on Halsey Wharf has the
potential to provide an expanded area on Halsey Wharf to host marine events in future, the proposal
should be declined because:
- Its consideration of alternatives failed to properly assess alternative location options on the
tankfarm/Wynyard Point headland/Wynyard wharf area, and failed to consider management
options for accommodating the America’s Cup event which distinguish between the boat
development phases of the event and the actual regattas.
- It seeks a ten-year consent duration for structures and facilities on Halsey Wharf that will have adverse effects which might be permitted for a temporary event (such as have been built to accommodate the Volvo Ocean Race event whose duration is one month) but are not acceptable in that location for ten years.
- It seeks an in-perpetuity consent for an extension to Hobson Wharf and a building structure for Team New Zealand.
- It requires the fishing fleet and Sealink ferry to be removed for up to ten years from their present locations on Halsey and North Wharves, adversely affecting the authenticity and working waterfront character of that part of Wynyard Quarter.
- It will incur un-necessary costs and additional environmental effects associated with
constructing buildings and infrastructure on land and in the coastal marine area on the
Western side of Wynyard Point to accommodate the relocated fishing fleet and Sealink Ferry service.
4. These submissions focus on the need for the Wynyard Quarter planning framework and resulting
natural resource allocations and infrastructure, to provide for the fishing industry, recreational boat
berthing, and the ability to host events such as America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean Race, with minimal
compromise and conflict.
Introduction and Discussion
5. I am an expert in the planning of Auckland’s regenerating waterfront particularly Queens Wharf,
Princes Wharf and Wynyard Quarter. I hold the degree of Masters in Planning Practice (University of
Auckland), and have practised as a planner advising Waterfront Auckland on waterfront planning
matters. I was an elected member of Auckland Regional Council (ARC) between 2004 and 2010 and
took a particular interest in the planning of Queens Wharf and Wynyard Quarter (then known as
Western Reclamation), after those waterfront assets were transferred to Auckland Regional Holdings
(ARH – an ARC entity), and when Sea + City was established and prepared the Urban Design
Framework for Wynyard Quarter. Between 2011 and 2015 I completed four years part-time
supervised doctoral research comparing the planning and implementation of urban waterfront
redevelopment projects and processes – particularly relating to public amenity and infrastructure - at
Auckland and Wellington.
6. I participated in two annual conferences in the USA (2013 and 2015) of the International
Waterfront Centre (See Appendix 1) which has recognised Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter planning and
implementation on two occasions, granting it top honour in 2012 where jury comments noted:
“Retention and celebration of the working waterfront has been a cardinal tenet of the Center from its
beginning. The harbor is the site of container shipping, ferry services and commercial fishing. In the
past these activities were conducted away from the public, despite their inherent attraction, but they
are now part of the public realm in Auckland and are integrated as attractions.”
7. In general, the Auckland Unitary Plan provisions for Wynyard Quarter have been carried over
from the Auckland District Plan and the ARC’s Regional Plan Coastal, whose provisions in turn were
established by Auckland City Council’s Wynyard Quarter Plan Change (Plan Change 4), and ARC’s Plan Change 2
to the Regional Plan Coastal. These plan changes attracted enormous interest and
participation, and were designed to give effect to the principles set out in the visioning documents
which at the time mainly consisted of the City Center Waterfront Masterplan 2009 and the Wynyard
Quarter Urban Design Framework 2007.
8. Many of the opportunities identified in these visioning documents competed against each other
which necessitated a very high degree of balancing in designing appropriate planning responses
through the plan change process which are now incorporated in the current planning provisions for
Wynyard Quarter. Subsequent proposals or refreshes to the future design or vision for Wynyard
Quarter have yet to be subject to an equivalent plan change process. A useful account of the history
of planning for Wynyard Quarter from the time it came into public ownership (non-Port), and March
2011 is contained in a paper by planners Nick Roberts and John Duguid (see Appendix 2) presented to the
New Zealand Planning Institute conference in March 2011.
9. For the purposes of this submission I focus on Principle 4 of the Wynyard Quarter Urban Design
Framework 2007 (UDF 2007), which is: “Promoting an Active and Working Waterfront”, and
explained: “The redevelopment of the Wynyard Quarter seeks to reinforce and support the regionally
important marine industries and fishing business on the waterfront”. The UDF 2007 breaks this
principle down into three responses:
3.4.1 Retain Existing and Create New Marine Uses
3.4.2 Accommodate Water Based Recreational Activity
3.4.3 Preserve Maritime Archaeology
10. The UDF 2007 describes the “fishing village” with the fishing fleet moored at Jellicoe and Viaduct Harbours.
It suggests that events/recreation/fishing fleet will all use Viaduct and Jellicoe Harbours (without distinguishing
between these users). And states that, “access to marine infrastructure and structures promotes an authentic
waterfront experience that will support the identity and character of the waterfront”, noting the specific “elements
of maritime archaeology retained include…existing buildings within Fish Market and on North Wharf”.
11. Appendix 3 charts in pictures the development of part of Wynyard Quarter. In particular it
depicts the relationship between the retained Net-Shed character building, North Wharf and the
fishing boats, which has been enabled and is protected by the relevant planning provisions. This
integration – where fishing boat berthage, character buildings, fish processing, fish restaurants, all
connected by the old concrete, wood and iron of North Wharf - is very much part of the “authentic
waterfront experience” at Wynyard Quarter that has attracted such international acclaim. Quoting
again from the 2012 International Waterfront Centre jury member comments in support of the top
honor award granted to the Wynyard Quarter project, “people are inherently attracted to gritty
industrial waterfronts and yet, ‘contemporary waterfront redevelopments are often defined by the
removal of these characteristics’. One Center member has called this the ‘perfuming’ of our
waterfronts.”
12. Panuku’s proposal to relocate the fishing fleet onto the Western edge of Wynyard Point, for ten
years or more, will – in my opinion – adversely affect the authentic waterfront experience which is
one of the key waterfront legacies of the visioning documents and planning processes that
underpinned the redevelopment of this portion of Wynyard Quarter. While the planning documents
and planning provisions explicitly recognise events, it is not the intention of those provisions for
events to be provided for at the expense of the fishing fleet and the amenity it provides and the
contribution it makes to the authenticity of Auckland’s working waterfront.
13. Appendix 4 contains a photomontage of the village and hosting environment created on
Auckland’s waterfront for the recent Volvo Ocean Race stop-over. There were 6 boats or syndicates in
this one-month event and a major presence by Volvo. Various popup buildings were constructed on Halsey Wharf
(on the extension that was built in 2003 as part of Auckland’s hosting of the America’s Cup event that year),
on Te Whero Island, and within Karanga Plaza, and the entire Maritime Event Centre was used to accommodate
workshops and equipment storage and maintenance facilities for each syndicate. This is clearly the kind of yachting
event that Auckland can host without fuss, on public space, with considerable public support, and because it is
temporary and does not require significant changes to, or additions to, underlying infrastructure, there is general
stakeholder acceptance and considerable public enjoyment.
14. Halsey Wharf was developed, expanded and used to host the 2003 America’s Cup defence.
Syndicate bases occupied the wharf space at the site that is now being used to build the Fu Wah
luxury hotel, several other syndicate buildings occupied the wharf space now occupied by what was
originally named The Marine Event Centre – and is now known as The Viaduct Event Centre, and
others occupied space at the end of Halsey Wharf which is currently open space used by the fishing
fleet. The current application proposes another extension of Halsey Wharf to host syndicate bases for
the 2021 America’s Cup event and through constructing more durable and long-lasting structure to
potentially host the America’s Cup in 2025 should Team New Zealand retain the Cup.
15. All of the Wynyard Quarter planning – prior to New Zealand winning the America’s Cup in June
2017 – has explicitly recognised the need to provide for recreational, event and fishing related boats
and boating activities. However the current planning framework has not effectively planned and
provided for resources that can or will meet those reasonably foreseeable needs in ways which
recognise that those different activities can be in conflict with each other (eg the current proposal for
which consent is sought considers that ferry and fishing fleet activities cannot operate as they
currently do, because they will conflict with the proposal’s America’s Cup event operational
requirements for ten years), except perhaps for temporary activities. Effective event hosting
resources have existed in the past, but the planning framework has enabled that event infrastructure
to be taken and developed for other uses, forcing today’s stakeholders to consider options that will
require further reclamation of seabed and taking of water space. The current requirement is an
opportunity to address that planning shortfall and deliver on the original Principle 4 (set out above)
by ensuring the reasonable protection and expansion of fishing industry requirements which are part
of the working waterfront vision, by establishing reasonable resources for hosting future events on
the Wynyard Quarter, and by providing reasonable berthage for recreational vessels, and minimise
the environmental and financial costs associated with further reclamation or the construction of
additional or new structures over the inner harbour seabed.
16. That opportunity has not been taken up by Panuku in the current application which has not
considered in its options assessment resources potentially available for the purpose of hosting events
that exist on Wynyard Point, some of which are encumbered with issues including leases and the risk
of contaminated land. This is unfortunate. Even while I was an ARC councillor, the dream of a
headland park on Wynyard Point was compelling, and anything that could be done to make that a
reality was highly attractive. However it appears to me from consideration of documents released to
me under LGOIMA, that Panuku’s consideration of this matter shifted from when it was the
responsibility of Waterfront Auckland (which has since been absorbed into Panuku), so that greater
emphasis has been placed on the need to derive revenues from Wynyard Point rather than to deliver
public amenity outcomes. For example Panuku has considered the option of extending current leases
on storage tank facilities, rather than shortening them which would enable the more rapid delivery of
public open space, and it has focussed on optimising revenues from potential developments there. It
may be that Panuku’s economic drivers prevented it from considering the option of locating
America’s Cup syndicate bases on Wynyard Point or on Wynyard Wharf because of the risk that might pose
to its revenue streams.
17. These considerations are all part of the weighing and balancing across all principles which
include commercial development design considerations. However, now that the Minister the Hon
David Parker has intervened, and has – if the media is to be believed – commenced negotiations with
a significant leaseholder to shorten storage tank and related land leases and so vacate Wynyard Point
sites and reduce demands for Wynyard Wharf in time to develop resources which can be used to host
America’s Cup syndicate bases, then that option must now be on the table.
18. In order for that option to deliver a legacy for Auckland, so that resources can be established
which in the long term can be used to host marine events – including events which have a longer
timeframe than (for example) the Volvo Ocean Race presence in Auckland – then careful
consideration must be given to potential adjacent activities (such as medium density housing or other
building development), so that reverse sensitivity and other conflicts cannot in future restrict its
reasonable use for marine events.
19. Various public statements from objectors to the current proposal have criticised its industrial
character, asserting that it would re-industrialise Halsey Wharf. Descriptions of what is proposed, and
what activities can be expected during the ten years sought for the America’s Cup syndicate base
occupation, appear to be on a different scale to what is occurring there in connection with the
hosting of the Volvo Ocean Race. The pre-race boat development, prototyping of technical systems,
and fine-tuning after sea-trials with this new America’s Cup boat design, will take time, and require
secrecy – and in all likelihood syndicates will proceed at their own pace, preferably out of the public
spot-light. This kind of activity is completely different to what happens during a regatta when there
are races everyday, when the public eye is firmly directed at the event, and when the village
atmosphere is at its most intense. Locating this development activity within or adjacent to a more
industrial part of Wynyard Quarter might be appropriate. The present marine industry is mainly
centered and located on the western edge and southern end of Wynyard Point. A yachting event
marine cluster – with temporary buildings along the lines of those built to house syndicates in 2003 -
could locate across the south end of Wynyard Wharf, across Brigham Street, taking up tank farm land
to Hamer Street. It could form the event space for buildings housing an International Yachting Centre
(providing space for Team NZ), forming an urban sleeve between the event space and proposed
residential development, and mitigating reverse sensitivity concerns.
20. Panuku and Auckland Council have been “refreshing” various planning and vision documents.
Plans relating to Wynyard Point were refreshed as part of this process prior to New Zealand winning
the America’s Cup, and this has resulted in a proposed realignment of headland park land and the
establishment of a broad linear park running from Jellicoe Street, parallel and adjacent to Wynyard
Wharf and apparently replacing Brigham Street, and adjoining the Headland Park space proposed for
northern end of Wynyard Point. Proposed development sites line the western edge of this linear park.
Panuku documents indicate that consideration is being given to some sort of public or community
facility (not an iconic building) being part of this development – though any detail has been withheld
from documents released to me under LGOIMA.
21. The planning framework refresh for Wynyard Point needs more refreshing so that the part of
Auckland’s waterfront that is centered around the Viaduct and Wynyard Quarter continues to protect
and develop the fishing industry, provides for recreational mooring and berthage, and is able to
reliably and sustainably host marine events ranging from the Volvo Ocean Race to the America’s Cup.
ENDS
PS: If you want my whole submission - with the four appendicees in a pdf file - just send me an email and I'll send it: joel.cayford@gmail.com
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