Fighting fund growing, as residents prepare to battle Unitec

Phil De Martin and Louise Newman, who live in Laurel St with son Elias De Martin, 11 months, are worried about the extra traffic the housing development will bring. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Residents raise battle funds as institute moves to cut up campus for 1400 new homes.

A Mt Albert resident is optimistic about influencing Unitec's 1400-residence plans, saying more than half the money for the first expert had already been raised.

Francis Mortimer, Mt Albert Residents Association co-chair, said $5600 was quickly raised towards the $10,000 needed for a traffic engineer to represent residents' concerns about the new village's effect on existing roading networks.

And that was just in a few weeks.

"We only started fundraising about a month ago," Mr Mortimer said of the Givealittle page which he established.

Unitec says it now operates from 177 buildings spread over its 53.5ha site, but it only needs 7ha and wants to move down the eastern end. In a $250 million transformation, it wants to make major changes to how it uses its land and says the 1400-residence development makes good sense because the site is one of the city's largest development opportunities.

Louise Newman of Laurel St today expressed fears about Unitec's effects on her quiet cul de sac, saying turning the street into a busy thoroughfare into an entranceway into the new housing estate would be "devastating".

Mr Mortimer said the association had many concerns and not just about the Unitec scheme.

Francis Mortimer

"We are not supporting their current plans to develop housing bordering a heritage zone which shunts traffic from this development onto streets which were not designed for this type of traffic volume. Unitec is only one part of the development. Local iwi also have a land development plan for the site which is more intensive at the end of the Wairaka precinct than Unitec is proposing," Mr Mortimer said.

Traffic from this zone was also scheduled to be directed onto the surrounding streets around Laurel St and Rhodes Ave, then poured out on the already clogged Woodward Rd.

"Unitec have a perfectly workable option which is to link an existing road on their site through to Carrington Rd which would then remove a huge obstacle to their plans. But they will not budge. This is just one issue," he said, also citing the need to consider Gladstone Primary School's roll and the effects of a large influx of new residents.

"There's no discussion on infrastructure and how the existing [services] can cope with the new development. Where's the plan for schools as existing schools are already full to busting? Gladstone Primary is already the most densely populated school in the country and can take no more. Why was none of the land set aside for a school? They're only just now beginning to discuss this," Mr Mortimer said.

Generation Zero, the anti-car, pro-environmental group, has supported Unitec's scheme, saying the number of houses in Auckland has not kept up with the city's growth.
Mr Mortimer was also angry that Labour housing spokesman Phil Twyford welcoming Unitec's plans and encouraged him to speak to the association to hear its views.