Te Waihorotiu Station (Aotea) Community Liaison Group Meeting - Minutes 29 November 2022 DATE
Tuesday 29 November 2022
TIME
4.00pm – 5.30pm
LOCATION
Mexican Cafe, Victoria Street West
ATTENDEES
Link Alliance Shaun Sutton – Community Manager Nicole Borland – Development Response Manager Diana Toki-Hu – Communications & Engagement Advisor Patrick Gibbs – Project Engineer Carl Hewitson-Townley – Engineering Manager Jason Haggerty – Environmental Advisor Shivam - Noise & Vibration Specialist Auckland Council / Auckland Transport Oliver Smith – Delivery Manager Natalie Hansby – Development Response Manager Phillipa White – Communications James Wickham – Auckland Transport Attendees: Tania (Heart of the City) Noelene (City Centre Residents Group) Bruce (Mexican Café) Bruce (Manhattan Apartments) Ann (Tony’s Lord Nelson Restaurant) JD & Prateema (Victoria St News Agency) Do (Inner Peace Incense) Jugdish & Shobhana (Roma Blooms) Colm (Fiddler) Julian (AA Centre) Choi Yue (Mr Katsu) Hanoz (The Altruist Bitcoin School) Kerry & William (139 Vincent St) Chris (Attic Backpackers) Yolinda (Wilson Parking)
Agenda 1. Te Waihorotiu Station construction progress (Shaun Sutton) 2. Midtown Regeneration – Streetscape upgrade programme (Shaun Sutton & Oliver Smith) 3. Streetscape works – Construction and mitigation detail (Patrick Gibbs, Carl HewitsonTownley & Nicole Borland) 4. Feedback and Q&A
Presentations Presentations from Link Alliance and Auckland Council attached. No 1.
Item Welcome
2.
Te Waihorotiu Station construction progress and milestones
3.
Midtown Regeneration
Discussion Introductions & Christmas gift giving of honey from Natural Health Store (62 Albert St) - See attached presentation for full detail including photographs - Comment about challenges of Covid lockdowns on construction and how the construction worked around it / through it. - Timelapse videos of the underground areas from the past year were shown to demonstrate the progress made Streetscape upgrades - See attached presentation including renders of streetscapes including the Te Hā Noa project on Victoria St, and an overview of the midtown streetscape upgrade programme. Loading zones, and trees - The importance of loading zones was raised by attendees. The location of loading zones was pointed out in the final streetscape design drawings – as was tree locations. Emergency vehicles access - Several attendees voiced concern about the single lane of traffic in each direction on Victoria St West and how that would impact emergency vehicles from reaching where they need to go. - The same attendee commented that planter boxes on footpaths on Queen Street are also taking up space which could be used for. She also commented that the planter boxes are sometimes filled with rubbish. - The attendee felt that there was a lack of forward thinking, and that emergency access was not taken into consideration during planning/design phase. - Auckland Transport and Auckland Council have committed to a full response on this matter – initial feedback is that a plan for emergency access is included in the final streetscape design, to enable safe access for emergency vehicles. Antisocial behaviour and lack of public toilets - Several attendees agree that this is still an ongoing problem in midtown. Auckland Council representative spoke about the continuing work with various agencies/programmes. Link Alliance spoke about the safety and security programme it has in place across the construction site area.
4.
Streetscape construction detail
5
Q&A
-
See attached presentation including: Utility enabling and streetscape works will start early 2023 on Victoria Street - Working hours, construction methodology, and mitigations were discussed (see detail in presentation) - Link Alliance will submit the Public Realm Reinstatement Communications & Consultation Delivery Work Plan to Auckland Council in January, prior to start of streetscape construction. Engagement with impacted stakeholders will take place prior to submission. - Overall construction methodology and footpath/road “look and feel” will be similar to C2 in the northern section of Albert St. Utility works in footpath One attendee asked why does the footpath outside her shop needs to be dug up multiple times. Link Alliance responded that many utility provider assets are located below the footpath, and coordination to ensure only one set of works may not always be possible – however of intention is to coordinate these works as much as practicable, without causing undue delay to the overall station programme. Public toilets One attendee asked if there will be any public toilets as part of the streetscape works. Toilets will be available in the train station, however these will be behind the gate line – an AT HOP card will be required to access. Holiday Hours One attendee asked whether Link Alliance will work through the Christmas/New Year break. Non-critical works will not take place, however some works will continue during the break. Hoardings One attendee asked when the hoardings would be removed. The fixed hoardings will begin to be removed at the start of 2023 – however these will be replaced with temporary/moveable fencing during streetscape construction.
Next Steps -
Minutes will be uploaded to CRL website and circulated to relevant organisations Attendees are welcome to contact the Link Alliance team for a 1:1 meeting or attend drop-in sessions regarding the 2023/24 streetscape works The team will be in touch as soon as further information and detail confirmed
-
Underground tours of the station for all local stakeholders still on offer. We’ll be in touch to schedule these in with stakeholders.