Stadium hit by sinking feeling
Auckland’s latest multibilliondollar waterfront stadium proposal could be dead in the water, with the city’s planning chairman hinting council will not fork out for pre-feasibility work.
Pleas of urgency from the private consortium behind the $1.8 billion proposal appear to be falling on deaf ears.
Last week, Auckland Waterfront Consortium’s Michael Sage, a partner at law firm Simpson Grierson, said the consortium wanted Auckland Council, along with the Government, to enter into a feasibility study to see if the ‘‘free’’ proposal was achievable. ‘‘We weren’t expecting to have a response to our request there and then on the day but we are now wanting one,’’ Sage said.
‘‘We made it pretty clear, I thought, that there is a genuine need for urgency here. There are some things which could foreclose this project if we don’t get into position on them pretty quickly – the obvious one is the car park that Ports of Auckland is about to start building on Bledisloe Wharf.
‘‘It’s a disgraceful proposition to put something like that on our waterfront and there is simply no immediate need for it.’’
Ports of Auckland hopes to start construction next February or March on a five-storey parking building occupying part of the Bledisloe Wharf site eyed by the stadium promoters.
Auckland Council planning committee chairman Chris Darby said the sum of money signalled for feasibility work was $4 million. ‘‘$4m is a substantial sum of money and we’ve only just confirmed our 10-year budget, as of June 30 this year,’’ Darby said.
‘‘We never, ever heard prior to that any suggestion that we should set aside $4m for such a study, we never had those submissions and then just three or four months later ... we’re getting a request for $4m.
‘‘Council doesn’t do its business like that.’’
Instead, Darby has asked council staff to consider ‘‘how we treat the proposals that come in’’.
‘‘I’ve said to our staff there is a body of work to be undertaken at some point and that is the planning of the waterfront land that is currently occupied by an operational port,’’ he said. ‘‘I’ve said present us with some options as to how we can address the planning for that land, taking into