PO Box 47376, Auckland 1144. Website: https://www.stmarysbayassociation.nz/
• America’s Cup base – resource consent application
• Public meeting – St Mary’s Bay/Masefield Beach project
• Safety in St Mary’s Bay reserve
• Tree planting, St Mary’s Road
Dear member,
The primary purpose of this newsletter is to alert you the closing date for submissions on the America’s Cup bases. We also want to inform you of a public meeting about another application for resource consent now open for submissions; to let you know what the Association is doing in the wake of the upsetting assault in St Mary’s Bay reserve last week, and to update you on tree planting in St Mary’s Road.
America’s Cup bases – submissions due by 28 May 2018
You will have read that the three big players in America’s Cup planning have reached agreement on locations in Wynyard Quarter for the bases for the competing teams. The only extension of structures into the harbour will be a 35 metre extension to Hobson Wharf.
SMBA still has concerns about hazards arising from proximity of some bases to the remaining tank farm and will keep working with Council for a resolution of those concerns.
In our submission to the earlier application (now withdrawn) we also expressed concerns about relocation of the fishing fleet and the Sealink ferry base. The present application will require temporary relocation of the fishing fleet, but we are told that it will return to present locations when the competition is over. The move of the Sealink ferries will be permanent, and will be the subject of a separate application once the details of the move have been worked out.
Click on this link to get more information about the application and making a submission: https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/have-your-say/have-your-say-notified-resource-consent/notified-resource-consent-applications-open-submissions/Pages/ResourceConsentApplication.aspx?itemId=147&applNum=BUN60318372
St Mary’s Bay/Masefield Beach water project
Council recently applied for resource consent for the construction of the tunnel, pumping station and outlet pipe that make up its St Mary’s Bay/Masefield Beach water improvement project. Submissions close on 19 June 2018. The application is available for viewing on Council’s website: https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/have-your-say/have-your-say-notified-resource-consent/notified-resource-consent-applications-open-submissions/Pages/ResourceConsentApplication.aspx?itemId=202&applNum=BUN60319388
This is a $40 million-plus project and we are continuing to talk to Council about concerns over it, both on technical aspects and its ability to provide cost-effective improvements.
We are planning a public meeting in the week after Queen’s birthday weekend and will send you more information about this in the coming week or so. In the meantime, if you have a concern about any aspect of the application please let us know what it is, so that we can consider whether to raise it as part of the Association’s response (as distinct from any submission that you may wish to make individually).
Safety in the reserve
You may have seen or read reports in the media of the attack on a woman jogging through the St Mary’s reserve early in the morning of Friday 11 May. The Association is discussing with the police ways to improve security in the reserve, including more CCTV and lighting. Once we have their input we will talking to the Waitemata Local Board and Auckland Transport/NZ Transport Authority about putting recommended measures in place to try to avoid any repeat of this incident.
Our sympathy and best wishes go to the victim of this cowardly attack.
Trees in St Mary’s Road – an opportunity lost
You may recall that some time ago the Association approached the Waitemata Local Board with a suggestion for re-planting St Mary’s Bay Road to provide a boulevard of consistent trees as a feature street for St Mary’s Bay. The project received the board’s support in principle, and financial provision was made for it. The City arborist was very supportive of the concept and in February the board conducted a short survey of residents of St Mary’s Road to get further community input.
In our March newsletter we said that we would report as soon as we knew what Council planned to do. We met with the City arborist again at the end of March, ahead of his first report-back to the board after the survey. He gave us a very general report on the survey results (which, un-surprisingly, revealed a range of views). We asked that he consult again with us on his specific proposal prior to it being presented to the board for approval. Unfortunately that did not happen, and we heard nothing more until we were told last Monday that the board was to consider the project at its monthly meeting the following day (15 May). We learnt only then that the Association’s suggestion had been rejected in favour of a project that ignored the concept of our original suggestion and provided merely for removal of dead trees and re-planting in gaps.
We are disappointed – this was an opportunity missed by our local board: the outcome fails to deliver the enhancement of St Mary’s Road, and St Mary’s Bay generally, that was the Association’s goal in suggesting the project.
Warm wishes,
David Abbott
Chair
For further information, please contact:
SMBA chair, David Abbott dabbott@xtra.co.nz
SMBA secretary, Wendy Moffett wendymof@xtra.co.nz
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