The Wellington Waterfront and Tourism Development: Planning Process and Legislative Framework

<p>Over the last two decades, the redevelopment of the Wellington waterfront has become one of the most contested urban development projects in New Zealand, with the involvement of many varied interests. There have been a number of changes in planning, development concepts, rules, and regulations in order to manage its ongoing redevelopment. However, many development projects on the waterfront have been delayed and cancelled. It might be argued that regulatory and plan changes may be influencing the progress of this redevelopment. However, to date, no one has explored this relationship. Therefore, this study is aimed at filling this gap by using the Wellington waterfront as a case study and focusing on tourism development, the planning process, and the legislative framework surrounding this redevelopment. Its objectives were: (1) to explore the role of tourism in the redevelopment of the Wellington waterfront; (2) to identify the key players involved in the waterfront redevelopment, and specify their involvement and influence on planning and decision-making processes; and (3) to define the existing legislative framework for this redevelopment and examine the way in which it impacts tourism development in this area. This study adopted a qualitative research method. Data in this study was collected from a wide range of documents relevant to the Wellington waterfront and through face-to-face and semi-structured in-depth interviews. 18 representatives from local authorities, waterfront organisations, tourism entities, as well as urban planners, developers, community groups, and property owners were interviewed. Data triangulation was used in data analysis to validate and deepen the findings. The study found that tourism was not recognised as one of the key driving forces of the redevelopment of Wellington waterfront as a whole, although within specific development proposals tourism has been used as a rationale to support these developments. This suggested that to a certain extent tourism was considered in this redevelopment. In this research, while Wellington City Council (WCC) and its controlled entities were identified as the key players influencing the planning and decision making process, the involvement of the public may also play an important role in slowing down this redevelopment. There was firm agreement among participants about the impact of legislative framework on this redevelopment. This study found that there is a legislative framework within which the waterfront redevelopment works. However, the legislative framework tends to impact specific developments rather the waterfront redevelopment as a whole. Several implications and recommendations arise from this study, including the need of continuing research on impact of legislative framework on tourism from a legal perspective. Additionally, it is recommended that the extent to which legislative framework accommodates tourism should be emphasised in understanding its impact.</p>

The Wellington Waterfront and Tourism Development: Planning Process and Legislative Framework

<p>Over the last two decades, the redevelopment of the Wellington waterfront has become one of the most contested urban development projects in New Zealand, with the involvement of many varied interests. There have been a number of changes in planning, development concepts, rules, and regulations in order to manage its ongoing redevelopment. However, many development projects on the waterfront have been delayed and cancelled. It might be argued that regulatory and plan changes may be influencing the progress of this redevelopment. However, to date, no one has explored this relationship. Therefore, this study is aimed at filling this gap by using the Wellington waterfront as a case study and focusing on tourism development, the planning process, and the legislative framework surrounding this redevelopment. Its objectives were: (1) to explore the role of tourism in the redevelopment of the Wellington waterfront; (2) to identify the key players involved in the waterfront redevelopment, and specify their involvement and influence on planning and decision-making processes; and (3) to define the existing legislative framework for this redevelopment and examine the way in which it impacts tourism development in this area. This study adopted a qualitative research method. Data in this study was collected from a wide range of documents relevant to the Wellington waterfront and through face-to-face and semi-structured in-depth interviews. 18 representatives from local authorities, waterfront organisations, tourism entities, as well as urban planners, developers, community groups, and property owners were interviewed. Data triangulation was used in data analysis to validate and deepen the findings. The study found that tourism was not recognised as one of the key driving forces of the redevelopment of Wellington waterfront as a whole, although within specific development proposals tourism has been used as a rationale to support these developments. This suggested that to a certain extent tourism was considered in this redevelopment. In this research, while Wellington City Council (WCC) and its controlled entities were identified as the key players influencing the planning and decision making process, the involvement of the public may also play an important role in slowing down this redevelopment. There was firm agreement among participants about the impact of legislative framework on this redevelopment. This study found that there is a legislative framework within which the waterfront redevelopment works. However, the legislative framework tends to impact specific developments rather the waterfront redevelopment as a whole. Several implications and recommendations arise from this study, including the need of continuing research on impact of legislative framework on tourism from a legal perspective. Additionally, it is recommended that the extent to which legislative framework accommodates tourism should be emphasised in understanding its impact.</p>

Postindustrial Waterfront Redevelopment and the Politics of Historical Memory

How have cities reorganized attention to their waterfronts after the decline of urban seaports? What kind of cultural record attends this reorganization? This article investigates the politics of historical memory at several sites of postindustrial harbor redevelopment since the 1960s. It locates the aesthetic sensibilities of waterfront renewal in a scattered network of comic tableaux in literature, art, and moving images, including the documentaries of Dutch filmmaker Joris Ivens, the sitcom Arrested Development, and a mural at Baltimore’s National Aquarium. Like fragments of Benjamin’s dialectical image, these scenes bring together the allegorical ruin of the urban seaport with comic efforts to inaugurate its future as a commercial esplanade, as if virtualizing and intensifying those two phases of Benjaminian historiography (early modern allegory and nineteenth-century commodity). Intermittently, where this dialectical image begins to be realized, these sites have erupted in acts of de-monumentalization by anticolonial and alter-globalization activists. The article locates fragments of this dialectical image in seaports including Rotterdam, Baltimore, Barcelona, Long Beach, and Genoa, studied under the names given to their harbors by developers: Europoort, Harborplace, Port Vell, Rainbow Harbor, and Porto Antico.

Strained intergovernmental relations, jurisdictional complexity, and political posturing : the federal government's intervention in the development of Toronto's central waterfront through the Harbourfront Corporation

This paper explores the role that the federal government has played in the development of Toronto's central waterfront. Specifically, it focuses on the role and operation of the Harbourfront Corporation, a federally-owned organization that was charged with orchestrating the redevelopment of the central waterfront. This paper provides a brief history of Toronto's waterfront and an overview of the roles of the levels of government in Canada with respect to urban affairs and waterfront redevelopment. It analyzes the creation, operation, and dismantlement of the Harbourfront Corporation, with special attention paid to the organization's objectives, relations with other levels of government, and contributions to the waterfront. Finally, it outlines some lessons to be learned from the Harbourfront project.

(Re)discovering Toronto's waterfront: infrastructure and connectivity in a post-industrial landscape

The transition of waterfront land use from industrial to post-industrial is a global phenomenon. There are several forces that are driving this change, including the advancement of shipping technology and the relocation of industrial processes to areas with greater availability of land. In place of industrial uses, many cities have undertaken, or are in the process of undertaking the redevelopment of their waterfront. As a result of past industrial use, there often exists, a significant amount of transportation infrastructure that isolates the city from the waterfront. This paper establishes the context for waterfront redevelopment, before examining the impact of infrastructure urban forms by using the work of Kevin Lynch as a tool for analysis. Several case precedents are used to examine the course of action that other North American cities have pursued to mitigate the impact of infrastructure forms on the waterfront and how they may influence the way Toronto deals with its waterfront infrastructure.

(Re)discovering Toronto's waterfront: infrastructure and connectivity in a post-industrial landscape

The transition of waterfront land use from industrial to post-industrial is a global phenomenon. There are several forces that are driving this change, including the advancement of shipping technology and the relocation of industrial processes to areas with greater availability of land. In place of industrial uses, many cities have undertaken, or are in the process of undertaking the redevelopment of their waterfront. As a result of past industrial use, there often exists, a significant amount of transportation infrastructure that isolates the city from the waterfront. This paper establishes the context for waterfront redevelopment, before examining the impact of infrastructure urban forms by using the work of Kevin Lynch as a tool for analysis. Several case precedents are used to examine the course of action that other North American cities have pursued to mitigate the impact of infrastructure forms on the waterfront and how they may influence the way Toronto deals with its waterfront infrastructure.

Strained intergovernmental relations, jurisdictional complexity, and political posturing : the federal government's intervention in the development of Toronto's central waterfront through the Harbourfront Corporation

This paper explores the role that the federal government has played in the development of Toronto's central waterfront. Specifically, it focuses on the role and operation of the Harbourfront Corporation, a federally-owned organization that was charged with orchestrating the redevelopment of the central waterfront. This paper provides a brief history of Toronto's waterfront and an overview of the roles of the levels of government in Canada with respect to urban affairs and waterfront redevelopment. It analyzes the creation, operation, and dismantlement of the Harbourfront Corporation, with special attention paid to the organization's objectives, relations with other levels of government, and contributions to the waterfront. Finally, it outlines some lessons to be learned from the Harbourfront project.

Transitions in Urban Waterfronts: Imagining, Contesting, and Sustaining the Aquatic/Terrestrial Interface

Urban waterfronts represent hybrid locations of ecological, economic, and social zones of transition and dispersal, spatially reified between land and water. Yet, through advancements in technology and the emergence of globally linked economies, the structure and function of urban waterfronts as economic and industrial drivers is becoming increasingly complex. As cities seek to redevelop their waterfronts in response to these changes, recent research and scholarship has focused on understanding the ecological, social, and economic benefits derived from urban waterfronts. This research reveals that their benefits are unevenly distributed among local and regional populations as sites of accumulated inequity and inaccessibility that are generative for only a relatively small percentage of the people living in a metropolitan area. Set within this paradoxical nexus, this paper frames a call to scientists, planners, academics, and waterfront activists to expand urban waterfront research from an indicator and benefits model to incorporate three conceptual tools for better understanding key dimensions of waterfront reclamation within the context of green infrastructure research: urban hybridity, functional performance and hierarchies of access. We explore these key dimensions in relation to the waterfront redevelopment of Tacoma, Washington, USA. By acknowledging the hybridity of urban waterfronts, we illustrate that their relative performance and accessibility require ongoing empirical study and practical intervention. Our theoretical explorations plot some of the potential areas of investigation for examining the structural and functional transitions of urban waterfronts as critical locations for green infrastructure development for the 21st century.

Waterfront yrban regeneration in post-industrial Shanghai: plublicness and policy suggestions for making more inclusive public spaces

Waterfront areas in the city were occupied by industrial factories and freight ports in industrial age because of their convenience for transporting materials and resources by waterway. In the post-industrial era, as the role of the city gradually shifts from the ‘production centre’ to ‘consumption centre’, redeveloping waterfront industrial areas has become a global trend. In China, the city of Shanghai begins to redevelop its waterfront industrial areas since 2002. A main goal of the redevelopment in Shanghai is to ‘return the river to the public’, namely to open up the enclosed industrial compounds and transform industrial sites in the waterfront areas to public spaces. Focusing on the waterfront redevelopment and regeneration in Shanghai, this paper quantitatively assesses the publicness and quality of the newly created public spaces in three selected waterfront areas in the city. Drawing on the results of the empirical assessments, the paper argues that Shanghai has not achieved its goal of returning the river to the public yet. In response, the paper proposes some suggestions for policy-making aiming at improving the publicness and inclusiveness of public spaces in post-industrial redevelopment areas in Shanghai and other cities in the global south.