By Torika Tokalau of Local Democracy Reporting
A South Auckland councillor wants her local boards to seriously consider putting their hand up for urban development, to support its growing populations.
Manurewa-Papakura ward councillor Angela Dalton said for a long time, they’ve missed out on the Urban Regeneration Future Programme.
Eke Panuku, Auckland Council‘s development agency, has been regenerating towns or neighbourhoods within a local board areas, like Manukau, Papatoetoe and Pukekohe, to help them thrive since 2015.
“Be prepared to pitch,” Dalton told the Papakura Local Board.
When she was chair of the Manurewa Local Board, Dalton said she pitched to the governing body for regeneration, including extending the Transform Manukau boundary to Papakura stream, which was unsuccessful.
A car park at Manurewa train station was agreed upon but never eventuated, because of the Covid-19 pandemic and funding, she said.
“I’m really hoping we’re moving to a place where we can start coming back to health and actually doing stuff.
“It would be good for the South, this area, to get into that programme.”
The Eke Panuku Board met in June to outline the selection process of future locations, to be recommended to the Planning Environment and Parks Committee.
Wide interest was anticipated, but there was capacity for only two or three locations to be added to the programme.
To be considered, locations are assessed against strict criteria endorsed by the council.
This includes availability of council-owned sites for redevelopment; be able to leverage off previous investment, either existing or planned investment by government or council; proximity to public transport and commercial viability.
A shortlist should be ready by December, Dalton said.
“One of the driving criteria is that there is council-owned or central-owned land available so they can sell it and reinvest.
“Papakura doesn’t have much land. Manurewa does, it has more council-owned assets than it can probably leverage off.”
Dalton said Papakura had car parks which were to be sold off, but the board didn’t go through with it.
“You have to have a willing board, so as long as the board is willing to let go, to move forward, then there is every opportunity.
“Papakura, in the Unitary Plan, is a metropolitan centre and I think it deserves to have some sort of attention into how it can get to that stage.”
She said Papakura’s population had nearly doubled since the Super City, and the local board needed to start thinking of how it would care for them, and what its town centre would look like.
“They need to sit down and have a good conversation and its about a dose of reality, because we can stay as we are as long as choose to, but we can also take the opportunities to shift.”
The regeneration programme falls under three categories: transforming entire neighbourhoods; facilitating revitalisation through a few key properties within a town centre; and using council land to build more houses.
Papakura Local Board chair Brent Catchpole said the board would be delighted to be involved.
“We have watched Eke Panuku do good work in other parts of the city, and are always interested in working with anyone who can help us add to the economic prosperity of our region,” Catchpole said.
Manurewa Local Board chair Matt Winiata shared the same sentiment.
“Having a solid economic base, where jobs are present and local people have access to opportunities is critical to building a community,” Winiata said.
“We would certainly grasp the chance to work with Eke Panuku, perhaps even around a shared Great South Road connection with our neighbours at Takanini and on into Papakura.”
