Eden Park supporters get political in their fight on behalf of the stadium

Thursday, 21 February 2019

The debate around Eden Park is ongoing. Residents views. First published in Sept 2018

Residents close to the Eden Park stadium have rallied for the first time, and are planning political moves to secure its long-term future.

The Eden Park Residents' Association is considering standing candidates in this year's local body elections, and lobbying existing politicians to relax planning restrictions and enable concerts to bolster the finances of the trust-owned stadium..

The residents' first-ever public meeting was staged as Auckland councillors prepare over the coming months to vote on a financial bail-out for Eden Park, worth as much as $100 million, possibly in the form of loans.

Victoria Toon addresses the first gathering of the Eden Park Residents' Association

'We have to get vocal and give Auckland Council positive reasons why Eden Park should be used more,' Claire Baxter-Cardy of the Kingsland Business Society, told the 60-strong audience at Wednesday evening's meeting.

**READ MORE:

The chair of the Eden Park Residents' Association Jose Fowler at its first big meeting

* Eden Park bail out should mean more Auckland council control, mayor says

* Auckland Council considers Eden Park's $100 million financial hole

* Eden Park's grim financial future laid bare in report

* Eden Park: Stadium of the future or housing site?**

The association wants to counter a public view that local residents want the stadium out of their neighbourhood in suburban Sandringham.

Victoria Toon, a 10-year member of the association and now on the Eden Park Trust Board, told the meeting there was a misconception the stadium was a burden on city finances.

'Eden Park is not a drain on ratepayers - we contribute full rates of $336,000 a year, and no other stadium in the country pays full rates,' she said.

Eden Park's medium-term future has two big financial challenges, both of which are before the council.

Auckland Council will this year pay-off the Eden Park Trust Board's $40m bank loan, after being the guarantor for a decade.

Mayor Phil Goff hoped the council would then lend the trust board a similar amount at a commercial rate of interest, with the loan repayable should the stadium ever be sold.

The Trust board also cannot afford around $65m of essential maintenance at the stadium over the next decade, and the council may strike a deal to lend it enough to cover some or all of that work.

Eden Park's long-term future hangs on a very political issue, the current planning restrictions which limit the number of night events, and which set the bar for concerts so high that the trust board has not yet tested getting planning permission for one.

A change to the council's planning blueprint, the Unitary Plan, would be needed to allow more cash-generating evening events, and councillors' perceptions of public support for the move could be critical.

'Councillors have said to me they would be more likely to support Eden Park's future, if they knew the public was behind it,' association chair Jose Fowler told the gathering inside the stadium.

With local body elections in October, Rachel Langton from the Albert-Eden Local Board told the meeting the centre-right Communities and Residents' ticket was right behind the park's future, and urged association members to seek nomination to join the C and R ticket.

One of two local ward councillors, Christine Fletcher, arrived near the end of the meeting and said it was clear the stadium had to generate more revenue.

'Let's put pressure on the council which has been loathe to take on some of the discussion, as regulator (of the Unitary Plan provision),' she said.

'Ultimately Eden Park could come under the governance of the council,' she told the meeting.

Goff has made it clear the trust board and not the council would have to seek any change to the planning rules.

'They would initiate that change and presumably end up in the Environment Court and that could independently make its decision on what controls are justifiable,' Goff said.

Local opposition to a concert proposal, and more relaxed planning controls, has been led by a group called the Eden Park Neighbours' Association.

'As an association we have played a role in negotiating consent conditions and that has placed us in an unusual position of having a part in that process,' said its president Mark Donnelly.

'We have also found that our submissions to various plans and consents have always aligned with the majority of local submissions.'

The Neighbours' Association had successfully submitted against more night-time events being allowed in the Unitary Plan.

Donnelly said the association's work was based on arguing cases in statutory processes, where decisions were made after hearing all views.

The Resident's Association plans to find a core group of members to lead more active lobbying, and will meet again in a month.

Auckland Council is expected to decide any financial assistance for the stadium as part of its annual budget process before July.

The question of relaxing the planning restrictions would be a much longer process.

The stadium's existence for the next decade is not in doubt, but eventually it may be lined up against plans for a new, possibly downtown stadium, to see which option is more viable.