PONSONBY PARK

PONSONBY PARK - DEMOCRACY IN ACTION: BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE

In March 2016 the Waitematā Local Board embarked on a Community-led design (CLD) process to establish Ponsonby Park, the new civic space at 254 Ponsonby Road.

They did so to ensure the creation of an urban space that matched the needs of local residents, visitors and businesses. The volunteer CLD group has now been working for over 5 years to achieve this goal.

The CLD process has been hugely successful and resulted in the international award winning* LandLAB, Park+ design. Thank you LandLAB.

The design (whose concept images feature on this page) includes; • The Park (a grassed lawn and gardens, 1410 m2) • The Pavilion (outdoor sheltered area, 222 m2) • The Plaza and lane (outdoor paved area, 807 m2) • O’Neill Street upgrade (734 m2) • New building (190 m2) • Public toilet block (60 m2) • Refurbished lighthouse (1st floor feature, 120 m2)

The significant and sustained engagement by the community is a major contributor to the success of the CLD process as “planning for people must be planning with people”. • 698 responses to the Waitemata Local Board’s initial 254

Ponsonby Road consultation • 190 respondents to the 1st CLD consultation • 115 respondents to the 2nd CLD consultation • 1208 respondents to the 3rd and final CLD consultation

Recently Auckland Council held their 10-year Emergency Budget 2021-2031 consultation, that closed on 22 March 2021 **. Council is now reviewing the feedback received throughout April and May. They (the governing body) will then adopt the final budget in June 2021. This consultation will provide further guidance so we are looking forward to the results and will keep you informed of developments.

In a world where social connectedness is increasingly important and relevant, Ponsonby Park is precisely the infrastructure and amenity our community has shown they want and need. It will be the common ground and community hub that enables everyone to gather together, rest, relax and recreate - a place to meet new people or catch up with old friends or to simply spend some time to chill and take a moment. These are the very things that build and nurture community.

The engagement included; • 1243 signed the initial petition for a ‘whole of site’ open space development Ponsonby Park – Bring It On! (JENNIFER WARD)  PN

www.254ponsonbyrd.org.nz

*In November 2018 LandLAB’s Park+ design won the international ‘World Architecture News – Future Civic category’ award. It was also shortlisted at the prestigious ‘World Architecture Festival’ in the ‘Future Civic’ category.

**See page 66, for the Key advocacy initiatives of the Waitemata Local Board

www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/have-your-say/topics-you-can-have-your-say-on/the-10-year-budget-2021-2031-long-term-planconsultation/Documents/10-year-budget-2021-2031-consultation-document.pdf

JOHN ELLIOTT: PONSONBY ROAD - AT’S STREETS FOR PEOPLE PLANS

Let me make a couple of suggestions what Ponsonby Road is all about.

It is a connecting road between Three Lamps and Great North Road. It is home to lots of great shops, many of whom rely on visitors to Ponsonby from other Auckland suburbs for their livelihood. It is a long road, and a hard walk for disabled or elderly. Apart from on-street parking, there is nowhere for cars to park, except down side streets. Those of us whose street is filled with commuter cars every day, know how frustrating that can be.

Auckland Transport’s cunning plan is to make Ponsonby Road ‘safer’ and ‘more vibrant’. The community design group has developed ideas that include safer crossings, new trees and plants (ironic when council is at the same time demolishing a large forest of mature carbon sinks in Western Springs Forest), colour, artwork, safer ways to travel on bike and foot, improvements to loading zones and Uber pickups, and nicer places to sit and spend time.

You will notice no mention of cars, and their place on Ponsonby Road.

AT is aiming for changes to be in place by mid-2021. It is important to note that like so-called improvements in the central city, like High Street, changes will be temporary and movable, or removable if found to be impracticable.

Now, what are the main changes envisioned?

AT have earmarked from Anglesea Street to Williamson Avenue for the ‘make Ponsonby Road better’ project, so they have acknowledged that Ponsonby Road is too long to deal to in its entirety. Those of us who worked on the original ‘Main Street’ project agonised over that fact long and hard. We concluded that unless there was transport to take people from one end of the street to the other, the visit to Ponsonby Road would be limited. Now that ‘transport’ could be tuktuks, cycles, or minibuses.

So, AT’s proposal calls for a wide variety of installations. I’ll list just a few. ‘Create places to play’, ‘create places to linger’, ‘provide opportunities for local story telling and identity’. But the coup de grace is this: ‘a popup workshop space for cycling information, repair tools and upskilling.’ Some idiot suggests school visits to this hub to help attract kids to biking. Just imagine a struggling retailer losing a couple of carparks outside their shop to make way for a bike repair hub. I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I have to wonder whether one of the main objectives of this whole exercise is to ban as many cars as possible from Ponsonby Road.

There are strong calls for safer pedestrian crossings, which I support. There are calls for slower car speeds which I support. If drivers object to 30kph for safety reasons, then find an alternative route. That, however, does invite cars to rat run through side streets to avoid a slower Ponsonby Road.

When I was on the steering committee for the Main Street project, several things became obvious straight away. People could go to a mall and park easily. They would be undercover. They wouldn’t have so far to walk. Main Streets had to have their own attractions or they would die.

We settled on heritage, better use of old buildings, aimed for some depth on Ponsonby Road, secured paint from Resene and others to paint up old heritage buildings, fix balconies and roofs, use the upstairs and backs of larger buildings for small businesses, and we supported the Asian Tuk Tuk vehicles which ferried people up and down Ponsonby Road for a time.

The ideas around child play and green zones, places to linger, and the very vague ‘install space’, do not sit well with my concept of what Ponsonby Road is all about. Ponsonby families live in side streets, not on Ponsonby Road, and most people on Ponsonby Road on any one day are visitors who have come to shop, eat, or browse. The elderly or disabled among them will welcome a few more seats, some in the shade, and easier crossing of the road, especially if cars are slowed even more than 40kph.

I hate malls and almost never visit them. I’ve walked Ponsonby Road many times in the last few years, and I enjoy the hustle and bustle. I could now, at 82, do with a few more seats for a quiet sit down, but I can’t see merit in trying to turn Ponsonby Road into something new, or even something old, but without cars.

Businesses will go bust by the dozen, and times are too fragile to encourage that to happen. (JOHN ELLIOTT)  PN