Cancel the Golden Mile, say Courtenay Place businesses

Wednesday, 5 June 2024

The council is starting work on the Golden Mile at Courtenay Place, where it plans to remove most private vehicles, increase pedestrian areas and install new bus lanes.

A petition signed by an estimated 90% of Courtenay Place businesses has gone to the Wellington City Council urging it to stop its Golden Mile upgrades along their stretch.

Signatories include celebrated architect Roger Walker, philanthropist Sir Mark Dunajtschik and hospitality leader Mike Egan.

It comes just days before councillor Tony Randle will move a notice of motion in a Thursday council meeting to postpone the Golden Mile project until a full “integrated” transport plan for the city is done.

The project, previously costed at $137 million, had been part of the $7.4 billion Let’s Get Wellington Moving (LGWM) project, which was ditched by the National-led Government, with the council taking over the Golden Mile.

It was to be a complete revamp of the strip that runs from Courtenay Place to Lambton Quay but the council is starting at Courtenay Place, where it planned to remove most private vehicles, increase pedestrian areas and install new bus lanes.

The council is currently planning construction.

Karl Tiefenbacher, a Courtenay Place business owner who narrowly lost a by-election for a council seat, sent the petition to councillors on Monday. Tiefenbacher said just four business owners that were approached did not sign, against 73 that did.

Karl Tiefenbacher started the petition to stop the Golden Mile works on Courtenay Place.

Factoring in businesses that could not be reached, he estimated 90% of businesses in the area opposed the Golden Mile plans.

Tiefenbacher started the petition because the city was becoming “anti-business” with commercial city rates “disproportionately” hitting businesses. The former Paramount Cinema building in which he was a tenant was set to get a $31,450 annual rates bill increase, he said.

Losing cars on the stretch would mean a drop in custom, and deliveries would become a “nightmare”.

The petition says the Golden Mile changes, involving the removal of car parks, would likely have a “major impact on our turnover and potentially will make our businesses unviable”. It said consultation was “flawed” and did not allow the “strong opposition” from businesses.

Sir Mark Dunajtschik: ‘Don’t fix something that isn’t broken’.

“We ask the council works with businesses to come up with solutions for all and permanently cancels the current proposal.”

Walker, whose offices are on nearby Egmont St, said the loss of car parking was “premature”. “I don’t think Wellington is big enough,” he said.

Dunajtschik, a property developer who had donated $50m for a new Wellington children’s hospital, said his opposition was simple: “Don’t fix something that isn’t broken.”

Wellington mayor Tory Whanau has no plans to scrap the Golden Mile work.

Egan, the president of the Restaurant Association, said he fully backed a revamp of the area, ideally as a shared space that vehicles could get down, but not one that removed all private vehicles.

Mayor Tory Whanau said she had no interest in scrapping the Courtenay Place project – which would help “rejuvenate and create a safe and beautiful heart of the city” – but she would pass the petition on to council staff to “look into it”.

She would also take it to her new Mayoral Business Group to discuss.

Pukehīnau/Lambton ward councillor Nicola Young said the Golden Mile plan was “wickedly costly, and unnecessary, especially now Wellington has no population growth”.

But fellow ward councillor Geordie Rogers said people globally were spending more money in pedestrian-friendly spaces and the city needed to respond to the times.

“It’s really important that the council continues to work with business and their potential customers to deliver something that they both want,” he said.

However, this did not mean finding a compromise with businesses as this was already done in the LGWM engagement.