Westfield St Lukes Redevelopment “Kicked For Touch”

Plans for the Westfield St Lukes expansion have been “kicked for touch” because of the election, say local City Vision Councillors Glenda Fryer, Cathy Casey and Graeme Easte

Councillor Fryer said "Calling for an officers’ report on an independent Commissioners decision on a Private Plan change is a pure cop out.

“This Citizens and Ratepayers (C&R) Council does not want a public backlash in the Albert-Eden-Roskill ward two weeks out from an election and has instead taken the unprecedented action of calling for officers to report back to the Auckland City Council before 31 October.”

“The decision of the Commissioners appointed by the Banks’ Council goes against the planning policy of both the Auckland Regional Council and the Auckland City Council. Auckland City has spent two years on a legacy document The Future Planning Framework. This decision on the Private Plan change has ignored important aspects of it.

“The Auckland City Council must either adopt the Plan change or rehear it. They are unable to change the decision. It is my opinion they must rehear the whole plan change as there are fatal errors in it including the omission of a requirement for a Structure Plan. “

Councillor Cathy Casey said, “This is a huge overdevelopment of the site and the impact on the quiet residential neighbourhood nearby has been ignored by the commissioners. The transport linkages are inadequate as the Morningside train station is 800 metres away and bus timetables are not good. Stormwater systems cannot cope now and a doubling of the size of the shopping centre will only exacerbate the problems. St Lukes is not the place to put the largest shopping centre in New Zealand without a Structure Plan in place.”

Councillor Graeme East said, “Instead of orderly development centred on public transport nodes and existing village centres, this development will fundamentally undermine The Future Planning Framework which Auckland City Council has spent the last three years developing. The adjoining regional road is already clogged to capacity seven days a week - how will it cope with a mall twice as big?"

ENDS

© Scoop Media