Rodney Hide blown away by station vision
Parnell Train station update

Local MP Rodney Hide visited the proposed site for the future Parnell train station at Cheshire Street yesterday and was, in his own words, "blown away."

A staunch supporter of Parnell Inc., Rodney wanted to see the site for himself before attending a meeting he's set up with KiwiRail executives, and representatives of Parnell Inc, Parnell Community Committee and local architects Stevens Lawson - to be held this afternoon.

Rodney's reaction was the same as everyone who sees the over 5-hectare site for the first time. "I never even knew this place existed," Rodney said. "It's a treasure, and with the old carriage works building, has enormous potential."

At today's meeting, Parnell Inc wants to find out what KiwiRail has in mind for this amazing site. We'll be showing their executives an inspirational vision created by Nicholas Stevens and Gary Lawson, showing how the Parnell train station at this location would support excellent accessways between Parnell and the Domain and Learning Quarter; and how a ring of commercial/residential developments about the periphery of the site could support development of a multi-purpose creative centre in the old carriageworks building - certainly one of very few now remaining in New Zealand. The development envisioned would be a superb addition and drawcard for both Parnell and Auckland.

Potential parking initiatives under review
Council willing to explore new solutions

The loss of a number of car parks caused by the new pedestrian crossing at Heard Park caused some aggravation to nearby businesses. To try and regain some parks we've suggested the following to Council:

- Turn the motorcycle park at Windsor St, which is almost never used, back into a car park. Instead, get some Euro-style footpath parking for those groovy scooters on part of the new Heard Park crossing build-out - behind the mail boxes at the Ruskin St edge. This is a very daring idea because parking on footpaths is currently a no no in Council's rule book, but it might just fit in with its new shared spaces parking initiative. Fingers crossed- it would look very cool.

- Create angle parking on the Heard Building side of Ruskin St. People have made suggestions for angle parking on Parnell Road, which isn't allowed on arterial roads, but here's hoping Ruskin St is found to be a perfect candidate!

- In Gibraltar Crecents, where resident parking initiatives have seen this become P60 until 6pm, we've requested that the parking time be increased to 120 minutes, as in other Parnell side streets. Currently about half of Gibraltar Crescent's car parks are empty during the day - a huge waste of parking resource for Parnell.

Cycle parking initiative - After more than a year, we've got the go-ahead to trial a temporary cycle rack in a car park outside a local café, to encourage early morning cyclists to stop off where they can keep an eye on their expensive cycles while they get re-caffeinated. The rack would take up one car space, providing cycle parking for perhaps 10 people (or more). We think that's a smart use of parking space!