18 comments

  1. I’ve been attending some of these sessions organised by Puketapapa local board to discuss what residents want to happen at Three Kings post-quarry closure. It’s great to have the opportunity to provide feedback, although inevitably the meetings seem to attract a few who love the sound of their own voice.

    BTW despite Auckland Council wanting to add 1500+ homes into a tiny suburb, none of the residents went rogue-NIMBY. We did however say we did not want another Stonefields, which is precisely what Fletchers wants to build.

    1. “did not want another Stonefields” – Can you please elaborate on this, I genuinely don’t understand the issue.

      Stonefields isn’t far from where I live and I’ve watched the construction with great interest for some time. The houses seem to be of high quality and judging by the appreciation in property values, seem to be a hit with the residents.

      Is it the “cookie-cutter” approach, or the density that you find problematic?

      1. Stone fields has a variety of traffic issues, especially for people wanting alternative to using car. I presume that is what Steve N might be thinking, but not sure.

        1. Internally Stonefields is well designed, but externally is dreadful. Connections to the mountain, Lunn Ave shops, Glen Innes and Panmure stations, Tamaki Campus all totally missing.
          Three Kings quarry development needs to add strong connections to Big King, Three Kings shops and recreation facilities, not make it harder to get around.

    2. Update: looks like I caused some confusion with “not another Stonefields” comment, which referred to the depth of the quarry hole. Three Kings quarry is similar to the Stonefields site, but probably has some advantages. Here’s some background.

      The last King remains as a reserve but the quarry site separates it from the current civic/commercial area to the south. A key requirement from residents is to re-unite the sites two and provide good walking/cycling facilities to the maunga.

      The commercial shopping area is run down, but the owner has expressed desire to redevelop it. The owner’s representative was at the workshop last Saturday and his ideas/proposals were well received.

      The other half of the site is a really pretty “village green” used for lots of local sporting events, plus Highland games in Nov and Music in the Park in Jan. The Mount Eden Road bus road runs north/south, joining with the east/west service on Mt Albert Road. Civic amenities include an extremely well used library. The old Roskill Borough Council chambers have been closed due to toxic mould, but local board announced the historic part of the building is to be renovated. They are moving into it themselves, and are looking for other uses.

      We divided into 5 groups for the ideas workshops, but every group came up with a similar concept of civic amenities complementing/surrounding the village green, separated by a “main street” shared space from the rejuvenated shopping centre, potentially including apartments. A plaza to be created with north facing views and access to the maunga.

      Three Kings community want Fletchers to fill up the hole before building houses i.e. not just build a whole new suburb in a hole the ground 70 metres below the surrounding land (I think that’s the current depth that was quoted. We suggested it was a good opportunity to underground all the parking, so it didn’t take up valuable land. Hence “not another Stonefields”. However, Fletchers are pushing through with their own plans to start building ASAP.

      Fletchers want to use a tree lined council owned street next to the village green as access to the quarry. The residents oppose this, as the village green will turn into an arterial road. Main quarry access should be from Mt Eden Road. Fletcher’s reluctance to fill in the hole will make access to the civic/commercial area difficult due to the height difference. We wanted walking/biking access only.

      Oh, and I’ve also poked my stick once more about the lack of bus lanes at the beginning of the Mt Eden Road route. The frequent network (which can be every 3 mins at times) gets stuck in traffic just after leaving the terminus, so the first 1 km can take 15 min. The local board chairman has referred my request to extend the bus lanes to AT. If we’re shoving in another 1500+ homes, it seems a no brainer.

      My point is an existing community mainly of old timers is not complaining about extra housing. We like our walkable neighbourhood, and we’re happy to share it with others – if it’s done properly.

  2. Three Kings won’t have any detached housing. There are parks, sports fields, ponds, retail, apartments and terraces planned, all of quite a high level of quality.

    As for K Road… lots of ideas! It’s a place with so much potential, but that’s been severed by nasty old Spaghetti Junction.
    – remove the Grafton cemetery and redevelop it. The land is worth about $250million!
    – reconnect some of the old grid, eg beresford street.
    – allow far more height and intensity in the back streets around the future CRL station, hopetoun street and Newton Rd area.
    – replace the awful K Road bridge/bus station with a wide platform involving plaza and shops.

    1. the cemetery is stunning place. Just needs cleaning up and will become wonderful asset to the city. The Grafton Gully cycleway should raise awareness of this area substantially.

        1. Shame that heritage fears have in fact ensured that the walk/cycleway will NOT have connections to the cemetery. It only goes past it, with a fence between.

  3. K Road really obvious place for a separated cycleway. Major ridgeline connecting Ponsonby/Grey Lynn with University/Grafton/Parnell/Newmarket. For those brave enough to bike this means very quick cross-town trips, easily beating the Link.
    Issues probably is where K Road crosses bridge, as West of Pitt St is major bus corridor for North Western Buses. While some silly ones duplicating rail will dissapear soon, lots more bsues will soon join as NW interchanges and busway is built.

    1. Great question and I think the answer lies somewhere in the incoherent mess that is our planning system where the spatial planning/visioning mandated in the Auckland Council legislation fundamentally jars with the effects-based regulation of the RMA – the former has no legal weight under the latter.

      As I understand it, the plans in theory were meant to work together something like this: (1) Auckland Plan first to set a regional vision, (2) Area plans to articulate the regional vision at the local board level (for consultation – more accessible), and (3) Steps 1 and 2 to inform the zoning/regulation under the Unitary Plan. Step 3 overtook step 2 for political purposes (also because it takes ages to prepare 21 area plans), so now we weirdly have Area Plans that will have no effect on the Unitary Plan. I know, it’s crazy to me too.

  4. It’s quite obvious what needs to happen to K’Rd, remove all those lanes for cars and provide space for people. At present it’s simply a motorway with no allowance for anyone else. Pitt Street itself is absolutely crazy, how a street can have remained so wide for so long really shows that the priorities of Auckland City Council and Auckland Transport have been simply to forever widen everything and never the opposite.

  5. It’s not that hard to fit it all in on K Rd.
    The one thing that has to go is the parking. How many of the patrons of the op shops or Alleluia cafe drove and parked on K Rd? Less than 5 % I’d guess.
    one; remove car parks and put in bike lanes (it’s the link between Ponsonby and Grafton- will be a key cycling route soon enough)
    two: narrow K road from Q st to Pitt st to one lane each way, or make it shared.

    1. On that block it’s actually mostly bus stops, loading zones and taxi ranks. Only about eight actual carparks.

      I like the idea of narrowing and adding bike lanes, however Aucklands fist and second busiest bus routes pass though and have major stops there, being the inner link and city link.. Something serious would have to be done with traffic because they already choke out the buses, let alone if it were one lane each way.

      Personally I’d like to see a transit mall on that block, buses and bikes only. They might have to close the Grafton bridge on ramp for that, but otherwise you could redirect most traffic via Newton Rd, canada St and mayoral Dr. Not much reason to drive across there with Grafton bridge and the on ramp closed to traffic.

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