St Lukes mall expansion approved

The new Auckland Council has approved a controversial plan that will allow St Lukes shopping mall to expand.

Global shopping mall giant Westfield has asked for a private plan change to create the country's largest shopping mall by extending its existing St Lukes site.

The plan was approved today by the new council in a 16-5 vote.

Independent planning commissioners earlier this year recommended Auckland City Council approve the shopping centre owner's scheme.

Leigh McGregor, Greg Hill and Conway Stewart recommended the council accept Westfield's private plan change for its site.

Indoor floor space will increase from 4.5ha to 9.2ha, eclipsing the 7ha Sylvia Park shopping centre in Mt Wellington and Westfield Albany, which is also around 7ha.

Westfield owns much of the housing around its mall where it wants to build out to the north and east.

The mall has a Foodtown, Kmart, 127 specialty shops, five banks, a 644-seat food court with nine food shops, a 1640-seat multiplex cinema and 2018 car parking spaces.

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The expansion will build up areas north towards Exeter Rd and east towards Aroha Ave.

The retail giant wants the shopping centre to become "outward-looking" and commissioners backed that. Expansion will not start immediately.

"The redevelopment of St Lukes is likely to occur in several stages, depending on market demand," the commissioners said.

Traffic was an issue because St Lukes would remain "a vehicle-oriented centre for two principal reasons: it is clearly not as well served by public transport as other large centres such as Newmarket and Sylvia Park, and the nature of shopping is such that public transport is not an ideal means of carrying more than a handful of small purchases home".

St Lukes Community Association has previously protested about the expansion, saying 1920s bungalows would face 10m-high mall facades.

Traffic, noise, nuisance and the urban environment were all cited.

Association chair Graham Dekker said members were concerned that plans, permanently change the character of the St Lukes area and represent a fundamental change to their lives and community.

- nzherald staff