Auckland Fashion Festival

Owner and editor of fashion industry Apparel Magazine Sarah Mitchell invited me to the opening of Auckland Fashion Festival at Shed 10 on Queen’s Wharf.

For the first time I meet New Zealand fashion icon Paul Blomfield. Paul is one of New Zealand’s great iconic fashion leaders that have paved the way for New Zealand fashion, clothing, textiles and our creative economy.

The week-long event was an incredible showcase of New Zealand designers.

Support New Zealand fashion by visiting:

www.fashionz.co.nz

Celebrating 15 years of Go By Bike Breakfast

For as long as I can remember, so 15 years, I have been cycling to the Go By Bike Breakfast.

And despite the all too familiar session of rain, this years Go By Bike Breakfast in the Viaduct was another great success. 

In the photo, Waitemata Local Board members in a different order Pippa Coom, myself, Chris Dempsey at the Go By Bike Breakfast.

Costley Park review

There are over 200 parks and reserves in the Waitemata board area. One of the challenges Jesse Chambers and I face as the Park portfolio leads is the resource to identify and review the prioritisation of park upgrades.

Fortunately there are community champions like Andy Smith from Walk Auckland that held us to identity concerns and work in collaboration with the board and council staff.

On 22 March I meet with Andy, local residents and council staff to discuss the current concerns of Costley Reserve in Freeman’s Bay. Like many parks and reserves in Auckland, the growth of native bush is rapid and these have created many safety issues. Within Costley Reserve moss has grown on play equipment because of shading, and there has been a loss of sight lines and night lighting because of tree overgrowth.

Council staff will report back to the local baord with an improvement proposal.

Communities miss out on $1.6billion transport plan

This month I raised my concern about there being no identified process to incorporate local board plans into Auckland Transport’s ten year plan.

Auckland Transport plan on spending $1.6billion dollars of public money every year for the next ten years and Local Boards have yet to have input into how over 50% of Auckland’s annual rates will be allocated. 

21 local boards have been working with their communities over the last year to develop long term plans. Within our local board plan there are many transport related initiatives and we need to be able to deliver these initiatives on behalf of our community.

Two years ago, under the old system, elected members had overview to capital spend and programmes of work. They had the ability to adjust these budgets to deliver priorities for communities. So let’s say our community don’t want to spend millions of dollars on footpath upgrades but change the programme of work for greenways. There is currently no formal process in place to allow local boards to champion these changes.

Listen to what other local board members had to say about Auckland Transport’s ten year plan:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/editors-picks/6507051/Community-ignored-in-transport-stoush

The unspoken heroes of the Rugby World Cup

After the All Blacks won the Rugby World Cup at Eden Park, thousands of jubilant people flocked into the city centre to celebrate the victory.

I took this photo on Fort Street the night of the finals. The following morning the streets were spotless.

This month the Waitemata Local Board met with Civic Contractors who deliver a broad range of cleaning services to the inner-city and the surrounding suburbs and business areas. Every day they sweep 140,000 square meters of footpath. And in the 25 years they have been in operation they have worked with the police to identify and clean up over 200,000 tagging’s in the city.

Thank you to Civic Contractors for being the unspoken heroes of the Rugby World Cup.

Voting for Eden Terrace underway

The next election is underway.

The Eden Terrace Business Association is starting its campaign to become a BID (business improvement district). Following in the footsteps of Heart of the City, Newmarket, Parnell, Ponsonby and the K’Rd business associations, the decision will come down to a business vote in April this year.

In support of the economic development of the city, each Waitemata Local Board member sites on a Business Association. I am the board’s representative on the Eden Terrace Business Association and a secondary to Heart of the City. The duty of a local board member is to be accountable for any public money spent, foster relationships with Auckland Council and align long-term planning.

There has been a longstanding discussion with Auckland Transport that the opening of the Central Connector Project (direct bus link between Newmarket, Grafton Bridge and the Inner-City) removed 3,000 bus movements a week from Eden Terrace. After the post office closed and businesses started moving out of Eden Terrace, a group of concerned business owners came together in 2010 to start campaigning the council and develop long term plans in the area.

The Eden Terrace Business Association was formally established on the back of a ground swell of businesses wanting to see change. At the same time the Auckland Council published the central city master plan showing that Eden Terrace (incorrectly stated as Newton) has the greatest potential for growth in the inner-city. The potential growth has been stated within the economic justification of the central city rail project.

The businesses in the area started to develop a long term plan in late 2011. They identified that Eden Terrace was very different to other business improvement districts, in the fact that the inner-city, Ponsonby and Newmarket are retail focused, while Eden Terrace has a large industrial, office and event based businesses. As part of the associations’ long-term plan it held two focus groups with businesses and 32 face to face interviews with businesses and other key stakeholders like the Police and local politicians. Launching their key priorities:
• Parking
• Appearance of the buildings
• Lack of brand and awareness
• Crime encouraged by poor urban design and lighting
• Traffic volumes
• Lack of quality public space

The plan is available on the business association website http://edenterrace.org.nz/business-group.aspx

The association is undertaking a vote in April to become a business improvement district. This will fund the association through a separate rate on commercial and mixed use rate properties within Eden Terrace. The rate is calculated on multiplying the capital value of the property by 0.0005484 and this is the additional amount the owner will pay.

In considering your vote in the coming election requires a weighting between a collective business outcome and what you are prepared to pay. For example, if you own a property valued at $500,000 timed by 0.0005484 you would pay an additional $274.20. In terms of the benefits, I would ask yourself if you believe in the cause and the people driving the change.

Last week I represented the Waitemata Board on the Heart of the City BID which through a rates levy creates a budget of over $2 million per year (almost twice the budget of the Waitemata Local Board). Through the Heart of the City programme it invests that money back to the 7,000 businesses in the area. Supporting many annual events, like the Christmas Santa Parade and Taste of Auckland, directs thousands of people into the inner-city. The systems they have established can identify the economic retail return that events create above normal retail spent. New pedestrian count data can assist with the establishment of new retail shops. And monitoring visitor accommodation nights and business occupancy rates helps the association develop strategies to grow the economic potential of the area. A dedicate group that is well governed can create a place that is attractive to work, live and play.

The following article was published in the Auckalnder Eden Terrace BID Aucklander article that discusses the pros and cons of a business association. 

Update 21 April 2012

Congratulations to the Eden Terrace Business Association for there successful election to become the sixth Business Improvement District in the Waitemata area.

At mid-day on Wednesday 4 April 2012 the poll closed.  Independent Election Services advise that the final results are as follows:

Question: “Do you support the establishment of a Business Improvement District (BID) programme, (and accordingly support a targeted rate) for the Eden Terrace, Grafton and Newton area as shown on the accompanying map?”

 300 Votes Returned
 Yes – 59.67%
 No – 40.33%

Update 8 May 2012

The Waitemata Local Board received public presentations from the Chair of the Eden Terrace Business Association Ron Harcus and local business owner Graeme Bulling on 8 May 2012.

The Waitemata Local Board considered the results of the election and the presentations, and moved the following recommendation recorded in the minutes:

Item 14, Resolution WTM/2012/112

MOVED By Member Chambers, seconded Member Thomas

a) That the report be received

b) That subject to Eden Terrace Business Association AGM ratification of these matters itemised in section 4.24 of the Business Improvement District Policy to become a BID Partnership Programme, that the Waitemata Local Board recommends to the Governing Body of Auckland Council the establishment of the Eden Terrace Business Association BID programme and the associated targeted rate of $380,000, as shown in the Draft Long Term Plan 2012-2022.

c) That Annie Inwood, Local Economic Development Advisor and Gill Plume, Acting Business Area Planning Manager be thanked for their attendance.

CARRIED

Update 30 May 2012

The decision to become a business improvement district was in the hands of the business association membership tonight.

The Eden Terrace Business Association held their AGM to formally accept of reject the establishment of the business improvement district programme for Eden Terrace.

At the meeting I had the opportunity to speak and I discussed economic growth for business and the unique opportunity for self governance under the Business Improvement District Policy.

I commended the business owners for their vision and action to get it this far. In the scheme of things it is very hard for any organisation to have crossed so many hurdles. The fact the council has a policy that allows self governance business growth and that a vote was achieved is a massive accomplishment.

I said that “regardless of the outcome of your vote tonight the Waitemata Local Board will continue to work with you to bring about change in the area”.

After much discussion a vote was cast by the membership.

The results were counted by Independent Election Services:

32 YES

29 NO

The establishment of the Eden Terrace Business Improvement District Programme was CARRIED.

The members of the association agreed to strike a lower targeted rate from the initial $380,000 a year to $150,000 for the first year. Stating that the recruitment of a new business area manager may require them to walk before they can run. The Waitemata Local Board will now pass under urgency an amendment based on Eden Terrace Business Assocation decision to strike the targeted rate of $150,000.

The other important outcome of the meeting was the appointment of the new committee to oversee the governance of the association. There were ten nominations and one person appointed from the floor. Property owner Graeme Bulling was one of the newly appointed members of the eleven strong committee.

It is with great pleasure that as the Waitemata Local Board member that supports the Eden Terrace Business Association that I welcome the 6th Business Improvement Programme to the Waitemata Local Board Area.