Neighbours (from left) Felix Drissner-Devine, Meleseke Nightingale, Sahra Smith and Elaine Gallagher are appalled. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Neighbours (from left) Felix Drissner-Devine, Meleseke Nightingale, Sahra Smith and Elaine Gallagher are appalled. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Neighbours stunned to learn they won’t get any chance to object to
St Lukes almost doubling in size.
Owners of a popular Auckland shopping mall are trying to push through plans to almost double its size, without the public being able to have a say.
An Auckland Council committee this week considered an application by international shopping-centre giant Scentre for the expansion of St Lukes to be non-notified (considered without calling for public input).
The council's decision will be based on the Resource Management Act, which says any consent does not need to be notified if the effects are "no more than minor".
The plans mean the mall goes from the size of just over five football fields to 11. Consent would see its 4ha of floor space grow to 7.7ha but a plan change allows it to go to 9.2ha.
Neighbours knew nothing of the non-notified application until the Weekend Herald told them. Many want a say and are worried about noise, traffic, trees being removed, crime, nuisance, rubbish, parking and crowds.
Elaine Gallagher of the St Lukes Community Group lives on quiet Aroha Ave, set to become an entranceway into a vastly expanded mall. She was appalled to hear of the non-notified application.
"I think it should be notified. The impact here is greatest," she said of the properties opposite her. Many have been owned by Scentre for years and will be demolished.
Neighbours Felix Drissner-Devine, Meleseke Nightingale and Sahra Smith were stunned. Mr Drissner-Devine grew up in the street and said he enjoyed the peace and quiet.
Councillor Linda Cooper, who chaired the hearings committee on Tuesday, said no decision would be out until next week.
Albert Eden Local Board chairman Peter Haynes said the public was being shut out and expansion would gut Mt Albert and Pt Chevalier's shopping strips. Dr Haynes said that a few years ago, Westfield - now Scentre - was granted a plan change to almost double the mall, subject to resource consent.
"The problem now is that, like many developers, Scentre is 'salami-ing' the resource consenting, doing it bit by bit. The board has objected to this and said that Westfield should not be allowed to game the system in this way.
"This approach - by allowing the development to be consented incrementally and without notification - prevents the local people from having their opportunity to submit against any aspects that they are unhappy with.
"We were told when the plan change went through that that was okay, because people would get to submit in the resource consenting process - another broken promise to the people of Albert-Eden."
An artist's impression of the expanded mall, seen from the corner of St Lukes Rd and Morningside Drive.
Councillors Cathy Casey and Graeme Easte pushed for notification at this week's meeting and Dr Casey was particularly annoyed the hearings committee closed its doors and excluded her from deliberations because she is not a committee member.
"Both of us also questioned the accuracy of the traffic modelling, and how more cars aren't going to have any more than minor effects on an already congested road."
David Drew, Scentre (New Zealand) development executive, said the business was following the usual planning practice on St Lukes.
"As part of our standard development practice, we have lodged a resource consent with council which involves a proposed future development of the centre... This consent follows the plan change [i.e. rezoning] granted in 2011. The plan change involved approval of the proposed full masterplan for the entire site. The current consent is but a component of the full masterplan."
Mr Drew said the change would help the mall to become the retail focus of a town centre, as envisaged by the council's Unitary Plan.
He said St Lukes residents had been given every opportunity to voice their objections during the earlier re-zoning process, which resulted in written consent from residents for the plan change to proceed.
Scentre owns the 8.39ha mall site including surrounding land and has long planned the expansion, having bought up neighbouring properties. It views the wider area as having a high retail spend capacity, containing some of NZ's wealthiest populations.
Planning consultant Vaughan Smith for Scentre told the hearings committee that St Lukes had been developed at a time when inward-facing malls were considered acceptable.
The private plan change rezoned neighbouring land, enabling Scentre to double the maximum gross floor area to 92,500sq m, including 15,000sq m for offices. Scentre also wants St Lukes to become a more open centre.
Council senior resource consent project manager Tracey Grant recommended the applications be processed on a non-notified basis.
