Hobsonville Point: the 'good child' of west Auckland?

As mentioned previously a major development currently occuring in West Auckland is Hobsonville Point.

Hobsonville Point is a development on the Hobsonville Peninsula on the land that used to be owned/used by the Royal New Zealand Air Force. I went for a drive to take a look the other day and the area has certainly come along way. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done but what has been done so far is actually (in my opinion) looking really nice.
Below are some photos that I took and turned in a collage!

What is really interesting though is reading about Hobsonville Point on its website http://www.hobsonvillepoint.co.nz/.
The website basically reads like a checklist for all the current 'it' children of planning; the 4 wellbeings (environmental, economic, social and cultural), sustainability, broadband fibre, mixed-use and mixed-density development, protecting heritage and the list goes on.

How this community continues to develop and evolve over the next few years and further into the future will definiately be something worth keeping an eye on.

Awesome animations?

So this is an animation by the NZ Transport Agency showing the developments of the Western Ring Route. It doesn't include the Westgate/Hobsonville extensions but is interesting all the same.

I actually found it on another blog which, by the way, is really interesting and full of great information. Check it out if you get the chance . . .
http://transportblog.co.nz/

And here is the animation!

Developments, developments, developments

Currently 'out west' there are two big developments occuring.
The first is the SH18 Hobsonville Deviation and SH16 Brigham Creek Extension.
The second is the development of Hobsonville Point.

For this post I am going to focus on the former and then look at Hobsonville Point in my next post . . . so here we go!

These two motorway extensions have been transforming the Hobsonville, Westgate and Whenuapai areas since September 2008, and it is getting pretty close to being done. You can now go stand on Trig Road and look down a motorway that does actually look like it will be completed on time (the completion date is September 2011). Below is a picture I took of the motorway about a month ago looking towards Greenhithe.

As outlined on the New Zealand Transport Agency website(http://www.nzta.govt.nz/network/projects/project.html?ID=40) this project is the last of three in the area aimed at providing better linkages between west and north Auckland.

One part of the developement which (I think) looks quite cool is the pedestrian and cyclist bridge on Clarks Lane. Ceramic tiles (made by local artists from local clay) have been paved along the bridge with each tile featuring an image of topographical maps and cycling lanes from the Hobsonville area.
(Photo taken by me!)

Another aspect of the bridge is the 'Sinton Windows' artwork. This piece of artwork includes some of the windows from the original Sinton house which was unable to relocated when motorway construction began. The photo below is one I took of the artwork

.

Ofcourse there are many pros and cons to the development and extension of the Auckland motorway system and this is something I plan on focusing on in future posts but I think for now we will leave it at a simple description of what is happening!

Future of Auckland??? (Aerial photo of Melbourne sprawl)



Photo credit: Robert Kerton (http://www.scienceimage.csiro.au/index.cfm?event=site.image.detail&id=1543)



The MUL: helpful tool or annoying constraint???

So, in a continuation from my last post . . .  the MUL: helpful tool or annoying constraint???

Urban limits are usually put in place to stop processes such a urban sprawl and promote more intensified development within the limits.

The flip side being that the New Zealand quarter acre dream is becoming harder and harder to fulfill especially if, as is the case in Auckland, new homes are not built. This has been part of the cause for the current issues over house prices that are being debated in the news.

The main issue in relation to Auckland is, if the MUL is relaxed, what will the effect be on Auckland? Will it be aimless development? Or help fix the house pricing issues that Auckland is dealing with?

The way the development occurs will have a huge impact on the future of Auckland especially in relation to transportation.

Decisions made today have huge implications for future generations therefore any decisions made today need to be made for the future and be proactive not reactive (something that is often easier said than done . . . )

What will certainly be interesting over the next coming months/year will be seeing what decsions are made in respect to this issue as they will probably set the tone for future decisions.