Henderson & Lincoln Business Improvement District

I attended the third Henderson and Lincoln Business Improvement District public meeting held in Henderson this evening. The invitation to the first meeting (3 so far) was sent to landlords of the Henderson and Lincoln Road business areas. The invitation stated that it was going to be the first in a number of meetings to bring landlords and commercial tenants together, to form a Business Improvement District Association. This organisation could then lobby Council for improvements and initiatives that would help revitalise Henderson in particular. In my blog about the first meeting, I noted my surprise that it was a Council lead initiative to start a Henderson Lincoln BID, and my concerns was this would just lead to a duplication of process. It has only taken three meetings for Councils real purpose behind this initiative to be exposed. This third meeting had morphed from the purpose stated in the first meeting to a presentation about Councils intended development of their properties in Henderson. Presented by Panuku Developments staff (Councils Investment CCO) and was void of any mention of the Lincoln Road area.

It was a fairly limited overview, but Council's intentions to vacate the old Waitakere Council Building was confirmed. Much of the discussion was about the possibilities Council saw for the vacant buildings, but this evening Panuku Developments went further and identified five car parking areas Council owns which are being ear tagged for housing developments. As this unfolded, all I could think of was, where are they going to park the cars. The recently revamped and upgraded Lynn Mall shopping centre has led to quite a lot of complaint about parking. Much parking was sacrificed for more buildings to accommodate the Cinema and Eateries. I know of several instances where local people have spent 20 minutes trying to find a carpark, only to give up head and off down Rosebank Road up the nor Western motorway to do their weekly shopping at Westgate where parking is easy. You can't carry your groceries home on the train or balance them on a pushbike, I can't see the day we will abandon our cars entirely. It wasn't long ago we were told computers were going to make a paperless society. LOL

The fact that Auckland's CBD is still the functioning heart of our city, has a lot to do with the building of multistorey car parks many years ago. Unlike the new Westgate complex, where there is plenty of land for parking, Henderson is already restricted by development. Any revitalisation of Henderson has to account for car parking, and if we can't go out we need to go up.