Cliff or sea may spell rocky road for Shelly Bay
The road to a redeveloped Shelly Bay is likely to take out a beach and punch into the high-tide mark – but still won’t be as wide as the rules say it should be.
Shelly Bay Rd, which winds up the western side of Evans Bay in Wellington Harbour, is six metres wide – big enough for the 11 people listed as living along it.
But plans to redevelop the old military base with 350 homes, a boutique hotel, brewery, rest home and ferry service will require it to have ‘‘collector’’ road status.
Typically, that would mean a carriageway width of 14m, plus 8m of footpaths and berms, making 22m in total.
But a report to Wellington City Council says this is not feasible, ‘‘due to a cliff face along one side of the road and the sea wall and harbour on the other’’.
Some councillors remain concerned about how much money ratepayers would have to contribute towards infrastructure and services for the development.
Sarah Free, who holds the public transport, cycling and walking portfolio, is yet to get the servicing feasibility report – prepared for the council last year – and was still trying to get details of how infrastructure would be put in.
‘‘I’m just concerned to make sure the infrastructure is thought through.’’
September’s report says sufficient infrastructure is in place, or can be put in, to service the project without the need for ‘‘fanciful, untested, or cost-prohibitive’’ spending. But it also details how much work is needed.
Chris Calvi-Freeman, who heads the transport portfolio, said negotiations with developers were still under way to figure out if ratepayers would have to pay to get services to the harbourside site.
The council owns part of the land planned for development, and Calvi-Freeman said councillors would vote on whether that land got sold or leased to developers.
He, and others, would not agree to sell or lease it until a ‘‘reasonable deal’’ was negotiated about who paid for infrastructure.
Drawings show a proposed shared 1.5m-wide footpath and cycleway beside the 6m-wide road. At multiple points, the report notes that ‘‘significant’’ seawall extensions will be needed. At one point, there would be ‘‘loss of beach’’, and other beaches would lose ‘‘amenities’’.
At times, the works would probably have to extend into the highwater mark.
Councillor Andy Foster, who is also president of the New Zealand Local Authority Traffic Institute, said a 6m-wide road with a single 1.5m-wide shared walkway was ‘‘clearly not going to be adequate’’.
It was expected traffic on the road – about 1000 vehicles a day now – would increase to 4500.
The report also points to the need for a new reservoir and the replacement of a pipeline between the Mt Crawford and Shelly Bay reservoirs. A new sewage pipe was needed to a site 3.5km away in Kilbirnie, and involved construction though busy intersections and along a section of State Highway 1 at Cobham Drive.
The Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust, which is involved in developing the land with Ian Cassels’ The Wellington Company, said an upgrade would benefit ‘‘everyone’’.
‘‘Lots of people use the area other than cars, and tourist buses go there ... so it’s what’s needed for the good of the whole peninsula and how everybody uses it,’’ spokesman Wayne Mulligan said.
Asked if the trust was worried about potential disruption to the natural environment, he said he hoped discussions ‘‘would be kept in context’’.
‘‘We need to think bigger and smarter, and look at options that look after the environment, and provide the best peninsula for Wellingtonians and the tourists who will come to visit.’’