NZTA worried Sleepyhead development would put too many cars on new Expressway
Tuesday, 15 September 2020
If Sleepyhead get the green light for their billion dollar industrial community in Ōhinewai, the Waikato Expressway could become “a mirror image of the Southern motorway to Auckland”.
That’s according to the New Zealand Transport Agency principal planner Sarah Loynes, who was giving evidence at the Zoom rezoning hearing that will decide the future of the proposal.
Loynes said the NZTA’s objection to the scheme was centred on two main issues; the additional cars that would come with the planned industrial/residential development, and their effect on the $4bn Expressway.
Loynes said the NZTA viewed the Expressway as a crucial freight link for “New Zealand Inc”.
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* Rezoning request for Sleepyhead development in north Waikato due in September
**
”One of only four classed as national high volume routes, protecting that freight function is extremely important.”
She said NZTA was concerned that “the use of the Expressway for short, local trips” would hamper freight travel.
She was also dismissive of developers claims’ cycle lanes and public transport options would lessen the amount of cars on the road, noting the residential proposals would create demand for access to amenities in Huntly.
Public transport options would be “considerably less convenient than a 10 minute drive down the Expressway”.
”The way this site is located points to this [cars] being the problem.”
Loynes said the NZTA would “look more favourably” on the development of a solely industrial site, which prompted pushback from resource management lawyer Paul Cooney, one of the independent commissioners considering the development.
Cooney said the development was estimated to come with a $200m a year economic benefit.
“Is the NZTA telling us we should turn that down because people hop in their cars and spend ten minutes driving to Huntly,” he asked.
“If we allow this to happen here, where isn’t it OK?” Loynes said.
She also said if approved the plans would see the Expressway become the “mirror image of the Southern Motorway to Auckland”.
Loynes also said that while the Expressway did have capacity for additional vehicles “is that a good use of that capacity to put small distance trips on there”.
“The Expressway was built for a certain function.”
Objections to the plans were also raised by Gerald Lanning, lawyer acting for Waikato Regional Council.
He described the proposed development as “car dependent and reliant on infrastructure and services that are speculative at best”.
He also argued Sleepyhead had failed to present any evidence about alternative sites that had been considered, and that there was “no evidence from these [Sleepyhead] employees this is something they want to engage with”.
Lanning did concede however that “the economic benefits of this proposal are significant, that’s hard to deny”.
The economic benefits were also spelt out earlier in the hearing by social and health researcher Robert Quigley, director for Quigley & Watts consultants, who gave evidence on behalf of developers Ambury Properties Ltd.
“2600 jobs into a low income area where employment is difficult to come by and often low wage,” he said.
“It’s difficult for me to understand how this could be turned away.”
The rezoning hearing is set to continue until Thursday, September 17.