MUL shift will boost development potential

Waitakere City Council today welcomed the Auckland Regional Council’s decision to make the Metropolitan Urban Limit shift in the north west of its city operative – a move that will create around 30,000 jobs in the area.

“The announcement brings certainty to the region in terms of development potential,” says Waitakere City Councillor and chair of the Northern Strategic Growth Area Urban Development Committee Linda Cooper. “It ensures regional economic growth and a number of social and transport benefits for the Westgate to Hobsonville area and its immediate community.”

The MUL shift (operative on March 12) frees up an extra 435 hectares for strategic urban development and means the area is now very much ‘open for business’. Of that 435 hectares 125.5 will be industrial, 30.5 commercial and 95 residential. Seventeen hectares will be used for community facilities, including a library and 36 for mixed use with roads and reserves taking up160 hectares.

About 20,000 jobs will be created by industrial development at Hobsonville Village and the airbase with another 10,000 at Westgate, a new town centre (linking over the road with the current centre) which will also offer shopping, business, education and community and leisure services. Cycle, pedestrian, motor vehicle and public transport will be integrated and connected and the development will be one of the most significant and complex projects in New Zealand.

While some of the council’s plans and changes to its District Plan are the subject of appeals the work in the background is well advanced. The extension to State Highway 18 is well on track and the Hobsonville Land Company has begun earthworks for its major residential development. Plans are also well underway for Yard 37, New Zealand’s superyacht precinct in Hobsonville.

NZRPG (New Zealand Retail Property Group) has been one of council’s partners in the proposed development of the area for several years and the MUL shift confirmation is a significant milestone in the planning process according to its chairman Mark Gunton.

“It gives us the confidence to press on with the land’s development and following seven years in the planning process we, on behalf of the owners of 40 hectares of town centre zoned land, are looking forward to a year of progress in 2010,” he says.

“We are excited by the huge opportunity before us to deliver a major retail and commercial centre at Westgate. The site is superbly located on the motorway due for completion in late 2011 and we are aiming to have the development well underway by that time.”

NZRPG’s proposals to Waitakere City Council for the new Westgate town square area show it would be equivalent to the Melbourne central town square in the public space provided and a “traditional main street” feel.

“Westgate will be a convenient and comprehensive town centre serving an already large and growing population,” says Mr Gunton. “We have huge interest in businesses looking to establish or expand their operations in the town and we look forward to finally providing for this demand. It is great to have the support of Waitakere City Council in this project and to have it further endorsed by the ARC.”

ENDS

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