A four-level beachfront house on The Strand in Takapuna Beach is nearing completion. Plans lodged with Auckland Council have the word 'helipad' on a structure on the roof. Plans refer to the rooftop area of the home to the far left where white metal beams are in a grid formation. Photo / Jason Dorday
A four-level beachfront house on The Strand in Takapuna Beach is nearing completion. Plans lodged with Auckland Council have the word 'helipad' on a structure on the roof. Plans refer to the rooftop area of the home to the far left where white metal beams are in a grid formation. Photo / Jason Dorday
Plans lodged with Auckland Council for a new Takapuna home have the word “helipad” on a roof design but the same structure is also described as a roof service platform and no helicopter landing rights have been sought.
Owner David McAlpine has not responded to questions about whether heplans to build a helipad on the roof of his nearly-completed new home, and to apply for the right to land a helicopter there.
Auckland Council says no such application has been made but it does acknowledge that the word “helipad” is on plans it approved for construction of the new house.
A neighbour of the new home is worried about the possibility of a helipad within 16m of his home and cited the fact that the plans show “helipad” on drawings of the rooftop details.
Bruce McDonald and his wife live in a two-level penthouse at The Sands which is 16m behind David and Deirdre McAlpine’s modernist new home.
A four-level beachfront house on The Strand in Takapuna Beach is nearing completion. Plans lodged with Auckland Council have the word "helipad" on a structure on the roof. Photo / Jason Dorday
The new home has blocked most of McDonald’s water views although they do get views up and down the beach to the sides of the modernist house. A multi-level house which was demolished to make way for the new place also partially blocked views, McDonald acknowledged.
But a chopper landing next door worries him more than views.
The roof of this new Takapuna house has services but plans have the word "helipad" for one feature there. Photo / Jason Dorday
The council’s resource consents team said no helipad was proposed in the application to build the house.
But they acknowledged the word “helipad” was indeed on the plans approved.
A four-level beachfront house on The Strand in Takapuna Beach is nearing completion. Photo / Jason Dorday
“Please refer to the drawings where a single reference is made,” a council spokesperson said.
McAlpine has not responded to media inquiries about the new house or specifically whether he wants to get helipad landing rights on his roof.
The council drawings where the word “helipad” appeared showed a roof service platform supported by steel beams.
"Helipad" is on the plans for the structure on the left of the rooftop of the new home. But the owner has not commented on what he plans and no helicopter landing rights have been sought. Photo / Jason Dorday
McDonald also acknowledged that plans referred to the structure on part of the roof, visible from his apartment as a “roof service platform”.
The council spokesperson said: “The resource consents team has looked into the resource consent application and found there was no helipad proposed in the application submitted to the council.”
The house is four levels at the back, including the basement.
A four-level beachfront house on The Strand in Takapuna Beach is nearing completion. Plans lodged with Auckland Council have the word "helipad" on a structure on the roof. Photo / Jason Dorday
Construction work is nearly completed on two sites or titles.
The home has six bedrooms with ensuites, two additional toilets, a kitchen, four living areas, two garages, a workshop, a pool and a boat shed.
In 2023, The Sands apartment residents described effects on them from the new home rising.
Plans for the two Takapuna sites at 41 and 43 The Strand, outlined in yellow. Behind is The Sands apartment complex at 47 The Strand. Photo / Auckland Council consent documentation
Graeme Marwick, former body corporate chairman and a resident of The Sands, estimated the views of about 12 units behind were affected.
People living in the southern wing of The Sands would be the only ones affected once construction was complete, he said. An older and tall house had been on one of the sites previously and that had an effect on views so the development was a replacement, he stressed.
Back in 2023 when construction was well under way. The Strand can be seen at centre of this image, with the new house rising above Takapuna Beach. Photo / Jason Dorday
Most of The Sands’ units would be unaffected because the house was going up in front of only one end of the block, Marwick said.
Owners and residents in the 33-apartment Sands complex always expected development of the neighbouring site, which once had a tall older-style weatherboard house with a steep A-line pitched roof on it, he said.
Planning specialists Stellar Project have released application documents suggesting the new house infringes on permitted height-to-boundary standards, has a dwelling on the ground floor, brings a replacement boat shed within the coastal protection yard and that works have to be conducted within the root zone of a protected coastal pōhutukawa.
The replacement boat shed is in the same location as the existing shed. It will be extended 2.25m west into the slope of the land and extended southward by 1.6m to occupy the area now containing the beach access steps.
The height of the seawall will be increased by 1.5m to 3.6m above the finished floor level. The boat shed will be built with precast concrete and have a timber-clad steel-framed door, the planners said.
The older-style weatherboard house with a steep pitched roof (centre) once stood at 41-43 The Strand, Takapuna. This image is from January, 2020. The house has now been demolished. Photo / Google Maps
David McAlpine is the founder of Kea Property Group and has appeared on the National Business Review’s The List of wealthy individuals and families.
Kea says: “Founded in 1980 by registered quantity surveyor and building economist David McAlpine, Kea Property Group has since grown to be one of the largest and most highly respected property development and investment companies on Auckland’s North Shore. Over the years, the Kea Property Group has grown with the addition of Zane Gifford in 1997; David’s daughter Sarah McAlpine worked in the business 2007 to 2017 then rejoined the team in 2024. Daniel Maloney joined the team in 2013 as a qualified quantity surveyor.”
Other helicopter landing rights were granted at the end of O’Neills Ave, Takapuna when Sky TV founder Craig Heatley owned that property.
He sold that waterfront home to Lichun Gao.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
