Wellington.Scoop Two wins and a draw? – Wellington Scoop

Neville Lodge cartoon Evening Post 1958.

by Felicity WongIt was two big wins and a draw for Wellingtonians in last weeks transport and urban development package: a second tunnel through Mt Victoria, a traffic solution for the Basin Reserve, and a new rapid transit corridor to Island Bay.

Mayor Foster was excited about the huge package of transformational investment for the city ($7.4b). Deputy Mayor Free was glad it had been approved by Cabinet and the Regional Council, and now, she said, it would almost unanimously be rubber stamped by the City Council. Cr Pannett celebrated 25 years since Campaign for a Better City demanded a city for people not cars.

The LGWM package moved towards resolving two long standing and contentious issues, while leaving at least one important urban development aspect open.

Second Tunnel

The second tunnel has been on the books since the urban motorway was put through in the 1960s (destroying a good part of Thorndons land and buildings). As Cr Rush noted: while its unclear if it will be parallel or diagonal, there will be one.

The Greens new arithmetic was that two lanes for cars plus two lanes for public transport, in a new four lane tunnel, definitely does not equal four lanes to the planes. Because that was rejected in a past mayoral campaign. So Crs Foon and Paul quietly joined support for the package.

More principled (and independent) Cr Pannett voted against the preferred option saying she could not in good conscience vote for more roads.

Cr Condie was happy that extra funds could be spent future proofing the tunnel so it could take rapid transit if necessary in some decades time. Cr Young suspected the strategy for most was to accept the arrangement on offer and change it later.

Its yet to be known if the second tunnel will avoid destroying the historic south end of Mt Vic, but if a diagonal tunnel is accessed from the south side of the existing tunnel it would be a promising win for Wellington.

Basin Reserve

Mayor Foster also welcomed the elegant and beautiful solution for traffic navigating the Basin Reserve. It keeps a much loved cricket ground intact and easier to get to, while traffic will smoothly and quickly transit the area. Alluding to previous litigation against the hideous flyover that was once proposed by NZTA, Cr Fitzsimons reflected on the fraught history of Wellington transport involving the politics of stopping projects. Cr Foon thanked those involved in Save The Basin which defeated the flyover.

Weve also heard it with the St James, she said. Those who put their hand up and said lets not remove it have given us something that we really treasure now so theres two sides to that story.

Assuming Cr Pannetts concerns for further discussions to improve the plan are met, this could be the second big win for Wellington.

MRT Led Urban Development

The jurys out however on the third big component: the urban development led rapid transit corridor to Island Bay. The focus of the $120m business case will be on light rail (LRT), or bus (BRT) if LRTs too expensive.

Cr Young said LRTs cost would likely be $10b, (given the blow out for Auckland LRT from an initial $2b to over $29b). LRT, she said, was a tooth fairy prospect and everyone except light rail fundamentalists favoured BRT which the city should have done years ago. She said the package being adopted had the highest costs, embedded carbon and effect on Mt Victoria, Newtown and the Basin Reserve. It was also the least flexible & least extendable, and the lowest resistance to natural disaster with the highest reliance on high density housing.

Cr Calvert saw LRT as a Utopia. (Its one that LGWM has regularly illustrated for young green urbanists, with lovely artist renditions of LRT in Wellington streetscapes.)

No doubt the general election will sort the politics of LRT, given the lack of depth of political support for tracked LRT in Wellington (the Regional Councils ex Green Cnr Lee favours trackless trams).

In the meantime, Cr Free got important clarification from LGWM that if it was to be LRT to the south, then it would be bus priority to the east. If it was BRT to the south, that would allow BRT to the east also, but this would be resolved by the business case.

Urban Development

In any event, the current politics that LGWM reflects has coalesced around rapid transit to Island Bay. The basis for that is 20,000 more homes cant be built in low-lying eastern suburbs but could theoretically be built in Te Aro, Newtown, Berhampore and Island Bay.

Mayor Foster said be very clear, this is an integrated project not just a transport project, and relies on the densification around it because if you dont get the density around it you dont get a decent benefit cost ratio and youd be wasting money.

The mass transit he said supports the density by providing the capacity for a lot of people in that area to move around. The projects about housing, urban renewal and ensuring a lowest possible carbon future.

Cr Fitzsimons optimistically said this will make life in our city better and better for the planet. Cr Rush however pointed out there was no credible carbon analysis comparing the options, and no explanation of how any LGWM-inspired carbon-reduction fitted into NZs Emissions Trading Scheme (under our ETS, carbon saved in Wellington is available to be emitted elsewhere in NZ).

The Mayor reiterated his long term goal of restricting scattered higher carbon emitting development further out, saying we need to drive as much development as possible into that corridor because if we dont its not going to stack up and thats why I was comfortable taking a step back on housing in other areas (referring to recent voting on the district plan).

Cr Rush cautioned that it needed the private sector also but their interest was in CBD development and creating nice suburbs for families in Whitby next to Transmission Gully. Cr Young was dubious about increased population projections, and conscious of empty shops and the new long term pattern of working from home.

The other issue, the Mayor said, was his pitch to the Ministers of housing and transport, that we cant just passively zone and wait for the market. We need to be active and we need to be pushing that. He was, he said, doing some really good work with Kainga Ora through the Regional Leaders Forum. The need was to go out and engage with communities along that corridor and ask what that development looks like and how do we do it in the best possible way?

Cr Foon said for the comfortable, connected, even sleepy communities, this is going to be really quite a big change for them and Im comforted that officers have an engagement and comms plan underway because theres still many not up to speed with whats being proposed here.

We need to gain and keep their support as this is being planned and implemented, echoed Cr Fitzsimons.

The LGWM package notes (para 171) that the proposed district plan will allow for six-storey development in suburbs around the corridor, and much higher if they make city contributions. It also states that the district plan will be further changed to enable high-density mixed-use redevelopment around the future MRT stations once the station locations are confirmed. The report notes (at para 173) that for increasing urban development towards the intensified scenario, land use rules need to enable building heights greater than 6 stories near future MRT stations in areas where constructing 5-8 storey buildings is typically not commercially feasible, and because some tall apartment towers would be needed to maximise housing around MRT stations.

LGWM also envisages (para 176) setting up a joint Specified Development Project which would demonstrate the partners level of ambition for an integrated transport and urban development approach to be used for LGWM and the desire for more formal involvement from Kinga Ora in achieving this.

If new additional social housing underpins better public transport, and if LGWM gets poorer Wellingtonians comfortably housed, it could be another big win. But if random development results in clear-felling old suburbs and destroying the heritage and amenity of local communities, the politics of stopping things may become attractive.

Funding and Governance

Mayor Foster said an immense amount of work was required in the next phase: geotech, the exact layout of the road space, and assessment of which properties needed to be acquired (Waka Kotahi will fund $70m of the business case and WCC/GWRC $24m each). He also welcomed the broad political support for using congestion pricing as a new funding tool.

LGWMs report notes targeted rates could be applied to suburbs benefitting from MRT-induced value uplift. It concludes however that funding for urban development is a critical issue which still needs to be worked through.

Cr Calvert attempted to ensure better governance of the project. Expressing concern about the blank cheque being given to LGWM, she proposed that any delegation for signing off the IBC should include the Mayor and not just be given to the CE Barbara McKerrow. David Dunlop (LGWMs recent Acting CE) explained that the delegation to the CE alone was specifically designed to fit around the elections. WCCs Moana Mackey (ex Labour MP and WCC lead for LGWM) added that the delegation was necessary to respond to the timing of the election and potential changes getting in the way.

It was a big call for this Council to fully delegate decision making (blocking input by new elected members), but Cr Calverts proposal that the IBC be delegated to the Mayor and CE failed.

Cr Calvert pressed on with efforts for good governance, proposing that LGWM make regular formal reports to council (not just behind closed doors to the governance group).

Cr Condie (who campaigned on transparency) didnt speak up when Cr Fitzsimons explained away opposition to reporting to councillors as it would enable those opposed to a project to destabilise it by having a say. Dunlop agreed to provide regular updates, noting the goal was to avoid multiple rounds of agreeing the same thing which weve encountered in earlier business cases.

Localism

Local voices [are] being squeezed out in relation to health, polytechs, roads and public transport, water and sewage and even the rules governing the scale and location of houses wrote Tim Brown (2021 Wellingtonian of the Year, Business) in this months Capital magazine (Council Puckerooed?). Announcing a possible run for the Council, he pointed to shrinking relevance of local influencers and decision-makers and the resulting decline in voters interests.

Cr Calvert recently commented (on Wellington.Scoop) that the big decisions the Council has made over the past few years- Long Term Plan, Spatial Plan, District Plan and Lets Get welly Moving have not addressed the needs of most Wellingtonian. We are seeing the result of this with a record low 12% satisfaction level.

There are two parts to this issue. First, both elected members and Council management need to take responsibility for this declining result which now shows that 9/10 Wellingtonians are not satisfied with the decisions made. Secondly, we need to agree on what actions we are going to take to start to win back trust and confidence she wrote.

A wide and pragmatic approach, when roads, tunnels and public transport have always been highly contested here. It could be good, but will almost certainly be bad if local communities are not on board.

LGWMs full report to Council is here.

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Wellington.Scoop Two wins and a draw? - Wellington Scoop