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A luxury apartment block planned by the Auckland Council’s development arm as a money-maker, has spent four disputed years pursuing consent for resources.
Panuku Development has reduced the number of planned apartments, after hearing commissioners reject its 2016 plans for the corner of Dominion and Valley Roads in Mt Eden.
Then-Housing Minister Phil Twyford criticized in 2018 the refusal to grant permits for the block, in a city short of housing.
Panuku appealed and is now working through mediation on noise and construction impacts, with neighbors who objected to what was originally planned as 102 apartments.
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The plan had been criticized by community housing providers for not including affordable housing, but instead aimed to make money by selling it to a developer as a ready-to-build project.
Council planning commissioners in August 2018 said the design did not conform to the rules covering the area around the Dominion Rd site, and council planners had objected to it in the submitted form.
It involved the demolition of a building that was deemed to add to the special character of the area, and was found to be too tall and out of scale compared to the surrounding properties.
After being rejected for its volume and scale, Panuku appealed to the Environmental Court and removed 10 apartments from the proposal.
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Phil Twyford said that the rejection of planning for this development was a housing failure by Auckland City Council.
Mediation continues with five groups of nearby residents and owners, including those from a retirement village.
The Environmental Court in an update in March 2020, said that all but one of the five issues had been resolved.
“Except in relation to construction noise and vibrations, we concluded that the appeal could be granted subject to the revised conditions,” the court said.
“We have decided that the parties should be given the opportunity to reconsider what is proposed to avoid, remedy or mitigate the adverse effects of construction noise and vibration based on what we have identified as problematic,” the court said.
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Panuku’s proposed apartment development on the corner of Dominion and Valley Roads
“Panuku Development Auckland, together with the Auckland Council, are currently working through these,” Panuku said in a statement.
An update by Auckland Council Chief Economist David Norman revised down Auckland’s housing shortage to around 15,000 using the latest confirmed population data.
Data from the Auckland Council showed that the number of home building permits had risen to 15,470 in the year to September, the highest level since the early 1990s.
However, Covid-19 has dented actual home construction, with the number of approved completions in the seven months through September, 1001 down from 7,359 in the same period last year.
