Auckland council cannot ignore tower design says judge

The High Court has overturned a resource consent for a 36-storey apartment building on the site of the historic St James Theatre in Queen St and ordered Auckland City Council to reconsider the application.

The council had granted a "non-notified" resource consent to developers Norfolk Trustee Company Ltd for what Justice Patrick Keane said would become one of the largest buildings in Auckland. The application would therefore escape the public scrutiny expected under the Resource Management Act.

Justice Keane said council officials had become "myopically" fixated on heritage issues and almost ignored the design of the tower block, which would be almost as high as the 40-level Metropolis apartments.

He said that "even a cursory glance at the plans and elevations ... suggests at once that it is the tower block by its sheer mass and height, which will define this building from the street.

"Yet this reality is not remarked on, except in passing, in any documents that council's committee was given to consider. Nor were its implications under the design criteria spelt out."

Justice Keane rejected Auckland City's argument that it could not set out rules on design.

He said a purpose of the act was to enable people and communities to provide for their social, economic and cultural wellbeing.

Therefore, aesthetics were "an indispensable concern in every planning regime and for every consent authority."

The decision is a victory for urban design lobby group Urban Auckland, which had sought a judicial review of the August 2003 resource consent. The group contended that the specialist council report into this development - on one of the most central, public, historic, prominent and visible locations in urban New Zealand - had devoted just three paragraphs to the design of the tower block.

Spokesman Don McRae said it was a landmark decision that was desperately needed.

Auckland City planning director Dr Jill McPherson welcomed the decision, saying it allowed the council to give more weight to urban design issues - a key goal for Mayor Dick Hubbard and the new council.

Dr McPherson said the council had been unsure of the legal status of its urban design panel, set up last year to vet and improve the architecture of new central city buildings. It could now use the panel with more confidence.

"The Resource Management Act doesn't state urban design as an issue that we can look at. We have been advocating to Government that urban design go into revisions under way at the moment because we didn't think it was strong enough."

Dr McPherson said the council asked developer Paul Doole to submit the apartment tower to the urban design panel but he declined.

Speaking from Australia yesterday, Mr Doole said he would be reviewing "all paths" for the project.

He did not wish to make any other comment on the the future of the apartment tower, which involved restoring the historic Spanish mission-style theatre built in 1928, exposing an obscured tower covered by claddings since the 1950s and demolishing the former Odeon/Regent/Westend picture theatre buildings.