It's time for the tide to turn on the waterfront

BY HELENE RITCHIE

OPINION: Wellington's waterfront, our "meeting place", is great.

Wellingtonians and visitors of  every creed, class, race and culture gather there to enjoy their leisure,  and have done so in increasing numbers  over the past decade.

We love it. It gives us our sense of place, pride and open space - harbour, hills, sun and sky.

"The waterfront is and should remain distinctly 'Wellington'," says the council's waterfront policy. "It is a place where Wellingtonians can experience the things that are so uniquely Wellington - the wind, the harbour, the form of the city."

But despite this, a wall of big bulky buildings is being planned by the mayor and council. The waterfront still remains under significant threat.

In the 1980s, the harbour board gifted land to Wellington City Council in trust. But much of that land has been, and is planned to be, subdivided by stealth and sold to private interests. Huge chunks of waterfront land, heritage views, sun, skyline, open and recreational/leisure space, will be lost if the council's plans come to fruition.

Wellington City Council, as kaitiaki/ guardian, has been entrusted with this land, to act on behalf of and in the interests of the people of Wellington.

But right now, despite talk of ice rinks and campervan sites, the council has plans to turn public open space into a wall of big high buildings: on Chaffers, to replace the highly successful Chaffers market; three near Waitangi Park, blocking views of the Mt Victoria/St Gerard's/Clyde Quay historic boat sheds, and three on Kumototo, near the railway station.

There's Frank Kitts Park as well, planned to be cut in half and flattened.

Before any further buildings rob the public of their land and assets, there should be a full investigation into past deals, subdivision and sale of the gifted harbour board land to date. What exactly has happened to it? Who has benefitted? At what public cost? Why has the council done this? How? Some examples are:

* The New World site: sold

* Greta Pt: sold

* The Meridian Building land: sold - 125-year lease

* Shell Building (former Retail Centre): sold - 999-year lease

* Overseas Passenger wharf and heritage building: sold - 125-year lease

* Attempted sale: Wellington's prime site - the Outer T: defeated in court

The council's 2001 waterfront policy says unequivocally: "The waterfront is predominantly a public place, a place owned by all Wellingtonians . . ." But this fundamental value of collective ownership has been and is being violated by the council. Instead, the council's mighty resources have, since the early 90s, repeatedly borne down on the collective will of the people to take big chunks of this priceless asset from them.

The specious argument to justify this theft has been that these big buildings will provide funds for the open space. But the open space is there already - ratepayers have long funded improvements to it.

This is and always has been a ruse; a nonsense. Any investigation into waterfront funding over 20 years would readily show that no evidence exists of an immediate or long-term financial return to the people. Quite the reverse.

The waterfront company is in a parlous financial state because the priorities for expenditure have simply been wrong.

Further, there is evidence of subdivision without public consultation, enabling sales such as the Overseas Passenger Terminal one to go ahead on the grounds that: "It is considered that there will be no person adversely affected by this subdivision." Clearly, this is quite wrong, and an outrageous abuse of the law.

Wellingtonians - thousands affected by this loss - never had a say. Instead developers and private interests gained significantly.

But in any case, the waterfront is priceless. Just as the town belt was protected in perpetuity by those with foresight for our city, what waterfront land remains should now also be protected. I have sought that since the early 1980s.

In 2001, the successful resolution that I put to that effect was supported by a town hall packed with a public outraged about the council's wall of buildings - Variation 17.

They endorsed the resolution to protect the public open space. As the longest- serving councillor, I have never experienced a more passionate or larger public meeting on any one Wellington issue.

This pivotal decision in the capital was a very clear expression of the will of the people of Wellington.

But, a decade later, today, the council is again proposing to fast-track a wall of buildings with Variation 11.

Now it really is time to save the waterfront for future generations, and to let the tide turn completely.

* Helene Ritchie is a Wellington city councillor

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