Tryanny of time forces Auckland decision on America's Cup
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com/NZ 13 Dec 2017 21:35 PST
14 December 2017
Auckland Council rejected a play from a Minister in the Coalition Government, by refusing to further stall a decision on the best option for America's Cup bases in Auckland.
Economic Development Minister David Parker, who also has responsibility for the America's Cup, contacted Council member Mike Lee during the Meeting asking to have the Minister's pet option left open.
The line from Panuku Development's Rod Marler who has been the lead Council official on the project was that this was High Noon for the vexed issue of the location of the 2021 America's Cup bases in Auckland.
Marler told the Council that attempting to lodge Resource Consents for both remaining options "puts the project at considerable risk."
Parker came up with the first of his alternative options after a walkabout and accompanied by two lobby groups accompaning him on that exercise, who were philosophically against any further incursion into Waitemata harbour.
A strong submission by Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Emirates Team New Zealand and backed by the Council officers called for Halsey Street to be extended by 220 metres at the western end of the Viaduct Harbour. That plan would have kept all team bases in one location, but was rejected at the previous meeting after ETNZ's Board Chairman Sir Stephen Tindall made the concession that the team would be flexible on a second option known as "Wynyard Basin".
Parker's option, known as "Wynyard Point" initially involved taking an area vital to superyacht servicing, primarily by Southern Spars known as "Site 18". The area is also subject to plans by Orams Marine to extend their facilities and create an extended superyacht servicing facility. Without Site 18 there would have been little point in pursuing further superyacht servicing business which is one of the ongoing legacy benefits of the project. That could have caused New Zealand companies to relocate to other regions or countries who were more receptive to their needs.
Minister proposes base reduction
A second option from the Minister, who many suspect was driven by the influence of lobbyists did not involve Site 18. But it reduced the number of bases from the required eight to seven, taking over the ASB and Sanford carpark and other space leased for boat storage. It also had bases between existing storage tanks and use of contaminated land. Requiring those facilities to cease use or be removed would have been prohibitively expensive (up to $100million) said officials in an accompanying analysis.
The Wynyard Point proposal from the Minister became frequently referred to as "the Government's proposal", with some talk of regardless of whether the Council decided to support it or not, then the Government would proceed with it anyway.
The real issue identified by Rod Marler was what he called the "Tyranny of Time" with the need to have Resource Consents lodged by January 15, 2018, in order for the planning and construction to meet the late 2019 occupation deadline.
One Councillor claimed that the Minister has his own set of experts working on the Government Option, implying that these were independent of the Council group. However, Mayor Phil Goff stepped in saying that both groups were working on the basis of common information.
Despite being advised on November 30 of Panuku Developments concerns over the so-called Government Option, Minister Parker committed to further investigations on this and other areas. These seemed to still be ongoing at today's meeting - after which the Governing Body goes into holiday recess.
The Resource Consent application and hearing process will be shortened by taking the hearing straight to the Environment Court, which could still be subject to appeal and judicial review.
Stop called on twin-consent plan
The Auckland City CEO, Steven Town, in response to a question as to whether both the Government and Council option could be kept alive was that between now and 15th January we will have to move significant resources through that Holiday Period to achieve the lodging of an application for the preferred site, and we would not meet a 15th of January deadline to put in a consent that contained two different options or a second content. We don't have the funding or the resources, and we don't have the time."
"The Minister and the Crown may be able to lodge a second Consent. We do not believe they could do that by January 15. We don't have any more technical information to deliver to the Government officials we are working with. We have finished that process. We have emailed the Report to the Minister who is in Argentina [on a trade delegation]. "
Those speaking for the Government's option complimented the Minister for looking rigorous at the options and that he was more in tune with the Council's long-term strategy for the area than the Council.
Others such as Penny Hulse who has several substantial marine technology businesses in her electorate that despite the debate about how much money the America's Cup would bring, there was no doubt that it "would make the tills ring and the money goes to Government. We need to hold the Government's feet to the fire on this one. Every time something big happens we squeeze a bit of money out, the Government gets a huge slug of money back. We need to say "can we have that back, thank you"."
During discussion on an amendment which would have kept both the Wynyard Basin and Wynyard Point options alive, Goff refuted claims that the Wynyard Point option was the "Government's preference" saying the Government had never expressed to him a preference for one plan or another.
Minister calls Councillor
A few minutes later Cr Mike Lee advised that he had "taken a call from a high official who makes the plea that we include both options in the Resource Consent process because there is no point in investigating two options when one of them has technically been ruled out by a bureaucratic mechanism of this Council. The pleas is, from a high official, that we include both options", he repeated.
After being questioned later in the meeting as to the identity of the "high official", Cr Lee said that he had "received a call at 11.17am [7.17pm in Argentina] from the Hon David Parker from Buenos Aires. He made the pleas to include both options in the Resource Consent." It was not clear whether the Minister had been following the Council Hearing live on Youtube, or had his ear bent once again by friends in Auckland, or if his office was monitoring the Hearing and had given the Minister a heads-up.
Either way, it wasn't a good look and prompted to Mayor Goff to comment that he "hadn't heard an elected represented called an 'official' before."
Others noted that they didn't support the Viaduct Basin option at the previous meeting, and if the Minister was going to have his way then all three options had to go back on the table, not just two.
The point was also made that if the Wynyard Point option was pushed on the Council by the Government, then it was the Government that should be paying for that option. While Mayor Goff charitably referred to the Minister's interest as being "rigorous" a less charitable view was that he was just being meddlesome and second guessing the excellent and very through job being undertaken undertaken by Council officials under severe time-pressure.
Parade crowds influence
Cr Christine Fletcher from one of Auckland's longstanding marine industry families (and had spoken previously of visiting former Prime Minister Rob Muldoon during the dark days of the 25% Boat Tax), tried to get the amendment ruled out as a direct negative. The situation was resolved by the withdrawal of the amendment.
At the conclusion of the discussion phase, Mayor Goff summed up in another impassioned speech making the point that at the previous meeting they had voted unanimously to support hosting an America's Cup in Auckland. Goff recalled that 90,000 people from all walks of life had gathered in the City to welcome Emirates Team New Zealand home. "They weren't people in their business suits from an elite. They were a cross-section of New Zealanders, and they were proud at the sportsmanship that the Kiwis had shown and they were proud about the technology, and were proud that here was another event in which our relatively small country was top of the world."
He noted that in the Google statistics the America's Cup was the second most Googled term in New Zealand [and had been the most used term on Facebook] in 2017.
"We would be absolutely struggling to get a consent process through in time if we worked on the [Wynyard Point] variant," Goff emphasised. It seems that he will be having a discussion on that point with Minister Parker over the weekend, or early next week.
The meeting proceeded to a vote on the Wynyard Basin option which was carried by 12 - 3 with three abstentions.
The remaining points were all passed delegating the remaining parts of the process to the Mayor and Chief Executive to enable the Resource Consents to be lodged.
One of the resolutions passed was "that there is no funding available for a hosting agreement and that investment in the necessary infrastructure is the extent of the Council's contribution."
That would appear to hit the three balls in the direction of the Coalition Government who at the same time as the Council was meeting was announcing a spending spree of the surplus accumulated by the previous administration.
As well as having to swallow a dead rat over the site of the America's Cup bases, the Coalition Government will also be up for a share of the costs of infrastructure and will be solely responsible for the Event Fee.
Big picture looks bright
While they might appear to be on the financial hook in the short term, with the economy expected to flatten in the coming three years, the .75%boost to the country's GDP, which happened in 2000 and 2003 America's Cup might be a welcome leg-up.
If the Emirates Team New Zealand defence is successful, then the Auckland Council will have a real impetus to complete its plan for the Wynyard Point which involves turning a large end area into a public park.
Post-2021 the leases for the hideous silos will be up. The rectification and remedial work will be at the cost of the lessees and not the Council.
The development of a new superyacht servicing facility should also be well advanced - if not complete - and the NZ marine industry can look forward to achieving some ambitious growth targets.
The America's Cup infrastructure will be part of an additional $260million spent on the redevelopment of downtown Auckland ahead of the 2021 APEC. That plan brings forward six to eight years of development prior to the big events of 2021.
December 14, 2017, could well go down in history as a very significant date in the marine industry timeline. However, the over-riding lesson is that the industry and sport must be prepared to fight hard to consolidate the gains that it has achieved.
That means standing up for its interests and not leaving the running to self-appointed pressure groups and other "influencers". The lessons from this recent battle should be well learned. That involves fronting up at the Environment Court to support Emirates Team New Zealand and the Auckland Council officials.