2.1

Regional Land Transport Plan Hearings Subcommittee Minutes – 13-14 April 2021

Resolved

That the Regional Land Transport Plan Hearings Subcommittee:

1           Confirms the Regional Land Transport Plan Hearings Subcommittee Minutes – 13-14 April 2021 as a true and correct record.

Iles/Nees

CARRIED

3.1

Regional Land Transport Plan (RLTP) Deliberations - Regional Programme and Prioritised Activities

Presentation: RLTP Prioritised Programme of Significant Activities: Objective ID A3820587   

Contractor Rachel Pinn and Transport & Urban Planning Manager James Llewellyn presented this item, supported by Tauranga City Council Team Leader: Transport Strategy & Planning Alistair Talbot.

Key Points:

·           Noted corrections on page 18 of the agenda: the weighting for integrated freight and regional resilience should read 15% and better travel options should read 30%

·           The Transport Special Interest Group (TSIG) methodology was developed in conjunction with Waka Kotahi and specifically for the RLTP prioritisation process – adopting the TSIG prioritisation approach was agreed by the Regional Transport Committee

·           The scores against the four investment priority objectives were as relevant as the weightings themselves

·           A fundamental consideration was getting the prioritised list aligned with the Government Policy Statement (GPS) and with the climate emergency declared

·           Concerns had been expressed from the mayor of Western Bay of Plenty District Council about changes made to the criteria weightings, after which a number of different scenarios were introduced and discussed.

·           Congestion on the network was a reflection of the high number of people in single occupancy vehicles

·           Although freight and resilience were important, there were not a significant amount of projects on the list that were freight specific

·           Outlined the different outcomes of the top ten projects when the scenarios were altered.

Key Points - Members:

·            An important consideration was how projects contributed to accelerating the provision of housing and connectivity to jobs

·            Expressed concern raised that freight and resilience had not been given sufficient weighting considering the significance of small businesses in Tauranga

·            Noted that car-pooling and working from home were also travel options

·            It was important to understand the implications of the weightings on both the full list and the activities list.

In Response to Questions:

·         Clarified ‘better travel options’ from the perspective of the user by having better levels of service, i.e. having options available that were more convenient or not previously offered and gave people more choice including performance of existing bus services (reliability, speed etc.)

·         Projects and activities put forward with each scenario, particularly those aimed at better travel options had within them a mandate to understand dealing with growth as promoted through spatial planning, SmartGrowth and activities around priority development areas

·         Projects which promote better travel options and mode shift for people in single-occupancy private car benefit freight / commercial movements by freeing up existing road space for these journey purposes.

10:30 am – The meeting adjourned.

10:50 am – The meeting reconvened.

Key Points – Members (Continued):

·         Outlined areas of significance to Tauranga City: the importance of small businesses, transport connectivity to housing, economic development, Port of Tauranga, traffic congestion and the impact on quality of life

·         Needed to balance the equally critical issues of climate change, a shift to alternative modes, addressing safety, freight and regional resilience.

In Response to Questions (Continued):

·     Hewlett’s Road sub-area accessibility improvements had been linked with the Totara Street multi-modal project.

11:32 am – The meeting adjourned.

11:40 am – The meeting reconvened.

Key Points (Continued):

·     Staff outlined reasons for recommending Scenario 1 as the best approach – the prioritisation weightings that went out for public consultation in the draft RLTP:

o   There was evidence of broad support for the RLTP investment strategy, mode shift and prioritised programme

o   Strong consistency with the GPS and climate emergency, whilst retaining a balance of activities

o   Reflected key initiatives such as Urban Form and Transport Initiative (UFTI) and Tauranga Transport System Plan (TSP)

o   Regional Advisory Group (RAG) officers from across the region were generally supportive

o   No pushback from Waka Kotahi and positive feedback received on the draft RLTP

o   Very little time to significantly change the investment narrative in the RLTP document

o   Changes to the order of activities could have implications for programming (inter-dependencies)

·     Scenario 4 would likely promote activities that were longer term at the expense of other activities that were closer to being ready, it also raised an issue for some important inter-dependencies between projects becoming less likely.

Moved

That the Regional Land Transport Plan Hearings Subcommittee:

1           Approves Scenario 4 - in Appendix 1 of this paper - as the list of prioritised activities in the RLTP;

Selwood/Thurston

Division

A division was called:

The motion was lost

Resolved

That the Regional Land Transport Plan Hearings Subcommittee:

1           Receives the report, Regional Land Transport Plan Deliberations- Regional Programme and Prioritised Activities;

2           Approves Scenario 1 - in Appendix 1 of this paper - as the list of prioritised activities in the RLTP;

Thurston/Donaldson

Division

A division was called:

The motion was carried

3           Endorses the inclusion of the Katikati bypass as an unfunded activity in a separate table;

4           Endorses the inclusion of a line item for the speed management review within the programme section;

5           Prioritises significant activities in Tables 7-12 of the RLTP according to their ranking in their respective activity classes and amends their regional priority in Appendix 4 of the RLTP accordingly;

6           Endorses the inclusion of the indicative timing and national profile of prioritised activities where this information is available;

7           Updates the single integrated list in RLTP Appendix 4 showing the ranking of activities across all activity classes, according to how they measured against the ten year transport priorities;

8           Acknowledges the work and contribution of the Regional Advisory Group.

Thurston/Iles

CARRIED

3.2

Regional Land Transport Plan 2021 -2031 Deliberations

Presentation: RLTP Public Consultation Submissions: Objective ID A3820586   

Transport & Urban Planning Manager James Llewellyn and Senior Transport Planner Lorraine Cheyne presented this item.

Key Points:

·         Commended the quality of submissions and ideas that came through

·         Specific points under each theme relating to an activity or a new line item were put under the activities list so they could be considered individually

·         For the key theme of Inclusive Access, more non-car access options included people that did not have the option of owning and running a car

·         Noted strong support from local businesses for a low carbon economy

·         The importance of freight to the regional economy, access to ports and being able to move freight through well connected multi-modal hubs needed to be strongly reflected in the narrative

·         Decarbonisation of buses provided an opportunity for existing businesses to develop a cluster of economic activity around low carbon initiatives

·         Supporting cycle tourism across the entire region in the narrative was important

·         There was some diversity in submissions from people wanting more direct investment into resilience activities and others that were concerned about the cost of those activities

·         A key challenge with articulating resilience in the RLTP was that although it was crucial to plan for, there was no guarantee that the investment would be necessary.

Key Points - Members:

·         The public were becoming more open to mode shift, providing that the supporting infrastructure was in place

·         Having a low carbon back story to any enterprise was beneficial to business.

In Response to Questions:

·         Safety would be added as a strategic intervention to Table 4

·         The narrative for electric vehicles would include charging infrastructure.

·         The Rail Network Investment Programme was primarily focused on improving resilience of existing assets through maintenance of tracks etc.  Investment on additional capacity was mostly limited to Auckland and Wellington, although discussion was underway around a business case for passenger rail between Tauranga, Hamilton and ultimately Auckland

·         Page 75 of the agenda – ‘accept in part’ referred to activities which had been brought forward after the prioritisation, therefore were unable to be included in the list of prioritised activities and would go into the RLTP as un-prioritised.

Items for Staff Follow Up

·          Check that stock effluent disposal facilities would be addressed through a Council discharges plan and update members.

Amendments:

·         Insert a footnote to explain inconsistencies between targets in the RLTP and the targets in the Road Policy Action Plan and Road to Zero

·         Strengthen narrative around urban and rural ability to make mode shift adjustments to reflect that the KPIs are net across the entire region

·         Hapū to be added to the Inclusive Access recommendation where it referred to iwi engagement

·         Investment in housing needed to be more strongly reflected and recognition of commercial trips should be added to the recommendations on Economic Prosperity

·         Page 88 – amend ‘enable quality urban development’ to ‘support quality urban development’.

Resolved

That the Regional Land Transport Plan Hearings Subcommittee:

1           Receives the report, Regional Land Transport Plan 2021 -2031 Deliberations;

2           Endorses proposed changes to the Regional Land Transport Plan document as outlined in this report including the amendments as noted in the minutes;

3           Delegates to the Group Manager, Strategy and Science the authority to make any further minor alterations or corrections to the Regional Land Transport Plan;

4           Recommends submission of the draft final document to the next meeting of the Regional Transport Committee for endorsement;

5           Commends the work undertaken by staff in summarising submissions.

Thurston/Donaldson

CARRIED