Editorial: Protection racket on Golden Mile

Wellington City Council seems a mite confused. On the one hand it wants to protect retailers in the cbd from shopping centres in the suburbs - especially, it seems, Johnsonville - and on the other it wants to make the northern suburbs, with Johnsonville at their heart, an area of higher-density living, The Dominion Post writes.

It needs a rethink.

Last month, the council held an emergency meeting to give officers the power to reject large retail projects that they fear will pull people away from the Golden Mile - the stretch from the Embassy Theatre to Lambton Quay. The rushed meeting apparently happened because Dominion Funds, owner of the Johnsonville Mall, is about to apply for permission to treble its size.

The council is diffident about attributing its actions to the mega-mall proposal, presumably worried that any explicit link might expose it to claims for compensation.

But its "protect downtown at all costs" policy seems, on the face of it at least, to run counter to its own retail strategy, which, though solicitous of the cbd, also refers to having "the right shops open, in the right place at the time times".

For the growing number of residents in the northern suburbs, "the right place" is not always central Wellington.

While the council is trying to limit the growth of retailing outside the city centre, it also wants public input into proposals for the capital's 40-year development. These proposals, which include the northern suburbs, would encourage higher density housing.

How do councillors think those who live in all these extra Johnsonville homes will entertain themselves? Since shopping is now the No 1 leisure activity for so many families, will they head into the cbd, get slugged $4 an hour to park on city streets and pay Quay prices for a flat white?

Not likely. They will want to keep doing what so many do now - head to the Johnsonville town centre, where parking is free and usually plentiful, to buy their groceries, visit The Warehouse and perhaps splurge on a new handbag in the mall. The centre will become even more popular when, and if, petrol exceeds $2.50 a litre.

Councillors need to slow down and think again. Though some Wellingtonians might see council concern for the cbd as laudable, it not only ignores reality, it also ignores the fundament of a market-driven economy - competition. If stores in downtown Wellington want to attract shoppers, they must employ the age-old tactics of holding good stock, asking affordable prices and having welcoming staff and store fronts, not rely on the council instituting a protection racket on their behalf.

The council decided years ago to sell the once city-owned parking buildings to private enterprise. It is reaping what it sowed. If travelling to the city to shop becomes too dear, suburban dwellers will favour shopping centres that encourage their custom with free parking and goods that do not bear the cbd's premium.

In its own Johnsonville Town Centre Plan, the council acknowledges it is Wellington's largest and most significant town centre outside the cbd. Its residents thus do not deserve to have their retail options limited in such a cavalier and kneejerk way.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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John   #1   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

I would tend to agree with you. I live in Christchurch, however comparing Johnsonville Mall with Riccarton Mall (or even the slightly downmarket Linwood mall) using Google Maps, I'd say there is room for expansion. However, the bigger the mall, the bigger the crowds. Riccarton Mall could quite easily have 2,000 shoppers on a wet weekend. If you don't like searching for a seat in the food court, best to stay away.

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