Waiting at the yellow light

I was going to suggest that the dearth of blogs from me lately was because of my devastation at my marriage collapsing, but the reality is I was stuck in traffic.

Submissions close today for the Kapiti highway options.  An interesting press release from Chris Turver marked the event:

More than 3,000 individual submissions on the government’s plans for a four-lane expressway through Kapiti have been received by the New Zealand Transport Agency – and staff are still counting.

Chris Turver, an advocate for the expressway to be constructed on the existing Western Link Road road route between Raumatiu South and Peka Peka understands the total is a record for a public consultation process on a government roading plan outside Auckland.

He says the response reflects the huge interest in Kapiti in getting it right and he hopes the majority of the 3,000 responses to date will be in favour of the Western Link Road which has already been supported by a 2,100-signature petition.

The petition, organised by Mr Turver and KCDC Councillor Ann Molineux, ran for just three weeks and was delivered yesterday to NZTA Board chairman Brian Roche, with a copy to Transport Minister Steven Joyce.

Interesting times.

Time to amalgamate Kapiti with Anywhere Else [updated]

Further to my blogs on the Western Link Road (http://opinionatedmummy.blogspot.com/2009/09/todays-emotion-for-day-is-empathy.html and http://opinionatedmummy.blogspot.com/2009/08/feeling-vengeful-and-vindicated-all-at.html), the original Sandhills Motorway (as a Western Link Road) is back on the table after the Mayor, showing all her inexperience, tried to call NZTA's bluff by rejecting both options presented. So NZTA has proclaimed that the Sandhills road is now Option 3.

In the typically professional style that has come to characterise council dealings in this district, the KCDC has responded by taking out a ratepayer funded 2-page advertisement in the local Kapiti Observer.

I quote (and I'm not kidding, and the lack of punctuation is not mine):

NZTA took six months to arrive at two motorway options which would only result in trashing our community.  In three weeks Council officers and consultants have found better alternatives which we will tell the community about later this week.  Turning the Western Link into a motorway with few exits and entrances is completely unacceptable.  To those in favour, be careful what you wish for.

It took the Council decades to turn the original Sandhills Motorway into a four lane local road, into a two lane local road with restricted speed limits, into a two lane, winding goat track that is more suitable for cyclists and horses than vehicles.  The very purpose of the Western Link Road, right from the very beginning, was to take the local traffic pressure off the state highway.  The Sandhills Motorway, and even the four lane version to an extent, would have achieved this.  The other options are roads that are useless before they are even constructed, and only appease the Peak Oil loonies.  The process to date by the council has been hijacked by the loonies and by personal agendas ("not past my grandson's school," quailed the Mayor).

... A Sandhills Motorway would have unacceptable economic, environmental and cultural impacts.  It would go through school zones and damage a number of protected areas of wetland and bush. It would pass through a waahi tapu area, close to an urupu and the El Rancho Christian Holiday Park

The roading designation in Kapiti has remained largely untouched ever since the designation was in place.  Business and individuals and other groups who have constructed buildings and houses, holiday camps and areas of sudden cultural interest have known all along that a roading designation is in place.  I now wonder how long it will take for the mythical taniwha to materialise, as one did north of Hamilton a few years ago, should this option proceed?

Waikanae would become invisible and inaccessible to passing traffic.  Experts tell us the presence of an interchange encourages the pressure for big box retail development.  Do you want big box retail at Peka Peka?

Why is the council so against big box development?  It is not necessarily ugly, and brings in valuable income to the district.  And if the people of Peka Peka have no issues with big box development, and if the people demand it, shouldn't the council's role be one of support, rather than disdain.  At present, the entrance to Paraparaumu is illuminated with the warm, radiated glow of at least eight fast food outlets.  Charming.  The big box development would be welcome in comparison to this sight (and smell).  But the fast food outlets are meeting a market demand (does that say something about Kapiti?), and for that reason alone, while I won't support them economically, I will not speak against them.

...The Council  has discussed its proposals with potentially affected parties and will provide details of these proposals next week."

My home is directly affected, regardless of which option is chosen.  Perhaps I was out when the friendly council officer came to visit that day.  Or perhaps no one from the council came - we've been battling the council over the WLR for a long time, and the fundamental issue is lack of communication.

Council has reaffirmed its support for the full two lane Western Link

This is the winding goat track I refer to earlier in this blog.  Council appears to have forgotten, or not realised, that this version does not have funding approval, and is probably the reason why NZTA has taken control of the issue.  And there is not point reaffirming their support for it because it is not one of the options, for this very good reason.

The council seems oblivious to the fact that as long as the district is bisected by a state highway, change is inevitable.  The only way for the council to avoid improvements to the state highway is to relocate the district (or relocate the highway, but the days of Muldoonist tunnelling appear to be over, so the Rimutakas may be safe for now).

It would be more constructive to everyone, but particularly the affected ratepayers, if the council stopped its bleating and worked with NZTA on some compromises where (if) needed .   

Liberty Scott made a reluctant suggestion in one of my previous blogs that amalgamation with Horowhenua would have merit, as it is the citizens of Horowhenua who will immediately benefit from this improved road into Wellington.

It would, of course, have the added advantage of getting rid of the KCDC.

Today's Emotion for the Day is: Empathy

The hand wringing, the moaning and the whining over the proposed Kapiti Expressway (and that's just from the Council) is getting to me.  As are the statements from the Mayor, Jenny Rowan, that talk about what "the community wants".  As I have said in a previous post, http://opinionatedmummy.blogspot.com/2009/08/feeling-vengeful-and-vindicated-all-at.html, there are people in Kapiti who welcome the new proposals, and who particularly welcome the fact that the incompetent Kapiti Coast District Council is no longer running the show.  http://kapitiroads.blogspot.com/ articulates it well.

We've heard repeatedly that Mayor Jenny Rowan is feeling "shocked", "shafted", "shattered".  Welcome to a new emotion called  empathy, Ms Rowan.  You have made many of your ratepayers, who admittedly didn't vote for you (I know, I know, it's irrelevant), feel "shocked, shafted and shattered" for a very long time.  The difference, I guess, is that, unlike you, the ratepayers were facing personal financial strife with no discussion of compensation.  Perhaps now you will have an inkling of what it feels like to get an assurance from the Council that a road, designated since the 1950s, is definitely not going to go through your property, only to be told that the Mayor wants the designation changed because she doesn't want the road to go past her grandson's school (even though the school has known that the road was designated to go from its inception - well before the school bought land there).  Too bad if homeowners are affected.  "It's going past that school over my dead body", I believe was your statement?

You only have yourself to blame, Ms Rowan.  The Council, to give it perhaps a little bit of credit (gosh, it didn't kill me to say it.  I'm astounded), has repeatedly reinforced (granted, after extensive, unnecessary, repeated consultation) the decision that the road should stick to its original designation, and that it should be built sooner rather than later.  Nevertheless, you chose to delay while your grandson is still at that school.  Not a good reason to defer major roading projects.  And then you turned the WLR from an alternative road to the highway to a goat track.  No surprise, then, that NZTA stepped in.

You may well be feeling a bit low right now - another lesson for you: that's a politician's lot - but I suspect the reason you are feeling low is perhaps because you know full well that the reason this roading project has been taken off you is because you were incompetent.  You prevaricated and used it for political points scoring, rather than getting on and building it.  You ignored what was best for the district, for the country's capital city, and for the region as a whole.  You, and some of your tree-hugging councillors, seem to be completely oblivious to the reality of the roading situation into and out of Wellington.  The roads are sub-standard.  The roads do nothing for the region.  In fact, the roads do nothing for Kapiti - all the bottlenecks leading into Wellington occur at Otaki, Waikanae and at the Paraparaumu traffic lights.  From what I have witnessed of these traffic jams, the occupants of the cars do not suddenly have a revelation and decide to catch the train instead, and they do not decide to kill time by going shopping in Kapiti.  They choose to stay in their cars, close their windows to Kapiti, and wait out the horror.  I can't say I blame them.  You and your councillors have yet to convince anyone that Peak Oil is a reality, or that catching the (slow, dirty, unreliable, expensive) trains is a viable alternative.

Just to make matters worse, you then go off and sack Opus, the company providing advice to you on the Western Link Road, because of an apparent "conflict of interest".  Oh, really?  How convenient for you, Ms Rowan.  I suppose hiring a designer who is also employed by a developer with financial interest in the WLR is not a conflict of interest?  And wanting to change the designation of the road because of your grandson's school is not a conflict of interest?  http://kapitiroads.blogspot.com/2009/08/more-hypocrisy-by-council.html. 

Ms Rowan, if I can offer you advice for free, you have come to the point where all you can do now is save face by exercising your right to protest and not putting in a submission.  Do nothing - you and your Council have been so good at doing nothing since the road was first designated 60 years ago, so why change now?

Steven Joyce is my hero!

Just a quick one today - I am THRILLED that the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) has taken over the Western Link Road as part of the State Highway improvements. What a relief to no longer have to deal with the Council, and instead deal with central government - people who, on the whole, have a much better appreciation of process and of fair play. The KCDC's public humiliation is self-inflicted. They've only had since 1947 to build the damn road, and they've known all along that the funding was dependent on the road taking the traffic off the highway, but with their heads too far in the sand, they have been unable to grasp the basic logic that this won't happen as long as the WLR is a 50kph back road (that doesn't go past any schools).

And as for the DUMB (can you tell I'm lost for words today?) comments from Coastlands that re-routing the highway away from the mall will be detrimental to business, have you noticed that the current mall by the highway isn't exactly a busy mall?? And have you noticed that malls in Auckland, and Queensgate in Lower Hutt are not on a State Highway and their malls are always busy?? And have shops in them that people want to shop at?? If the mall is worth visiting, then people will come. But I shouldn't be surprised at Coastland's response; these are the same people whose submission on the Kapiti airport development involved an agreement with the airport developers that any retail occupiers at the proposed airport would not be in competition with Coastlands businesses. Who cares what shoppers might want.

For the moment, Steven Joyce is my hero. His comments that money isn't necessarily an issue, and that council will be "consulted" but not necessarily involved in the final decision, are music to my ears. I don't think I've ever looked forward to a consultation document so much. And the short (6 week) consultation period thrills me. I love this sort of decision making, and I love that the views of those directly affected are being considered (not the Peak Oil loony lefties).

I'm hoping NZTA ignores all the pleas from the Council. They've had long enough to make a decision, but instead have dithered over political points-scoring. KCDC no longer deserves to have a voice on the WLR.

UPDATE: Some great comments here at http://kapitiroads.blogspot.com