AUCKLAND CITY COUNCIL
MEDIA RELEASE

11 December 2005

Shaping a great future for our city

Auckland City Council will meet next week to discuss how the city will look and feel in the next 30 to 50 years and what the city needs to do, and invest in, to get there.

"Having a clear long-term vision for the city enables us to make the tough decisions about what projects we spend our money on in the short and long-term," says the Mayor of Auckland city, Dick Hubbard.

The council's long-term plan, published next year after public consultation, will outline the priorities for the city over the next 10 years. It will be the first steps to finalising and achieving a vision for how the city will look and feel in 30 to 50 years.

Mr Hubbard says it is important to set the right course for the city now to avoid the problems that under-investment in infrastructure and short-term planning in the city could bring in the future.

"There are many projects we would like to get started on," said Mr Hubbard.

"But any new projects we do in the city will have some affect on the level of rates."

Auckland City Council will discuss the budget for different scenarios of what could be done in the city over the next 10 years as the first steps towards the vision.

The scenarios include projects like the development of parts of the waterfront, the Auckland-Manukau Eastern Transport Initiative, Outside the Square plans for Aotea Square and water quality improvements through investment in the stormwater system.

The scenarios have been allocated costs and how these would affect the level of rates.

"We will carefully consider these scenarios and weigh up the costs and benefits to the city of each.

"We understand the pressures on ratepayers, and I can assure you that we will look at different funding options to try to make our rates go further," said Mr Hubbard.

Other funding options might include subsidies from central government, development contributions, borrowing and leveraging current assets.

The council will consider the vision and the costed scenarios at the direction setting meeting on 15 December.

The proposals will be amended and refined by officers and discussed again at a meeting of the combined committees of council on 8 - 10 March next year.

The draft long-term plan will be published for public consultation for one month on 19 April and will include the long-tem vision for the city and the costed scenarios and their impacts on rates for public consultation.

The final long-term plan will be published in July.

ENDS

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