Profound disappointment with Britomart Plan Change

Auckland City Councillor Glenda Fryer says she is profoundly disappointed at the decision of independent planning commissioners to grant a private plan change to a Britomart developer to build a towering hotel in the middle of a block of heritage buildings in Quay Street on the waterfront opposite Queens Wharf.

Councillor Fryer said, “The commissioners decision on Private Plan Change 41 is just plain wrong. They did not even take into account the views of the Auckland City Council or the Auckland Regional Council. The planned hotel does not respect the heritage character of the surrounding Britomart buildings and the heritage precinct will be degraded by the tall buildings. A height of 24 metres is sufficient for a good development. The 55 metres sought by Cooper and Co is far too high. Although Cooper and Co has overseen a significant transformation to date, the price extracted by the developer via this plan change is too high.”

At last night’s Auckland City Council meeting, Councillor Fryer called upon the Council to either rehear the plan change or turn it down. “Citizens and Ratepayers (C&R) used their majority to ram through an anti-heritage policy despite opposition from our own Council planning staff, the Auckland Regional Council and the Historic Places Trust. While C&R trumpets their support of heritage, when faced with a stark choice they make decisions which are not good for the CBD, the waterfront or heritage in Auckland. This Mayor Banks Council has done heritage ‘in the eye’ in this critical key site.”

At the meeting, Private Plan Change 41 was accepted. This means that the Seafarers site will be developed to incorporate a hotel which, if is fits in with the new much enlarged building envelope, will be able to receive a resource consent without being publicly notified.

Councillor Richard Northey said, “I was on the Council in 2000 and took part in the decision to award the intensely competed for Britomart precinct redevelopment contract to Cooper and Co. Part of the reason for selecting Cooper and Co over other tenderers was their undertaking that they could afford to redevelop the entire precinct in character without the need for any out of scale or out of character buildings to help fund it.

“Auckland’s waterfront vista and Britomart’s range of heritage buildings is a legacy beyond price for future generations that cannot be lost now by plonking an out-of-scale and out-of-character hotel plumb in the middle of it. I appeal to Mayor John Banks and his majority Citizens and Ratepayers councillors to think again and ensure a rehearing of this application,” Councillor Northey concluded

ENDS

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