Green Bay resident Tomasz Malarczyk is challenging a new housing development that plans to install a wastewater pipe through his property. Video / Dean Purcell
Green Bay resident Tomasz Malarczyk says Auckland Council and Watercare gave him no say over a wastewater pipe and manhole on his property.
Council chief executive Phil Wilson has apologised over requests for information but denied it was not taking residents’ concerns seriously.
Developer Joe Allen says he has tried to build good relations with residents but some have been aggressive and hostile.
An Auckland homeowner is devastated after Auckland Council and Watercare staff gave him no say over installing a sewer manhole outside his front door.
Tomasz Malarczyk, who lives at the Green Bay home with his wife and two daughters, said he had “zero engagement” from the council bodies, saying the process has been worse than anything he experienced growing up in Communist Poland.
“How do I feel about it? Seriously, it makes me sick. People think they can do anything, disrespect anyone, and get away with it,” he said.
In July, a senior council planner granted a resource consent variation for drilling a wastewater connection and installing a sewer manhole on Malarczyk’s property, saying there were no special circumstances to warrant anyone having a say.
Green Bay resident Tomasz Malarczyk says the behaviour of council staff makes him feel sick. Photo / Dean Purcell
This month Watercare issued a formal notice for the works to take place.
The manhole is one of several issues neighbours are upset over at a development in Cleve Rd where a single-storey duplex is being replaced with eight townhouses.
A neighbourhood spokesman, who only wanted to be known by his first name Ken, said residents supported more intensive development on the 812sq m site in the Mixed Housing Suburban zone that allows up to three houses as of right.
But he said what had been consented to was overly intensive and led to privacy, fire egress, rubbish disposal, and vehicle issues.
Issues with the council, its lawyers, and the developer have resulted in two written complaints to Mayor Wayne Brown, councillors, and council chief executive Phil Wilson.
“In our view, council staff and lawyers are deliberately obstructing the community’s access to information, while at the same time acting at pace to facilitate this development,” one complaint said.
Despite the need to dig up Malarczyk’s property, one complaint said, officers concluded “in very cursory fashion” that the effects of the works were “less than minor… this defies belief and commonsense”.
Wilson has apologised to the group for the failure to provide information, and the time it took to respond to requests, but said any impression the council was not taking their concerns seriously was “absolutely not the case”.
The site at Cleve Rd, Green Bay where developer Joe Allen is building eight townhouses. Photo / Dean Purcell
The council’s planning and resource consents general manager, John Duguid, has also acknowledged “shortcomings” in the processes and denied a deliberate attempt to mislead neighbours.
When developer Joe Allen purchased the property from a developer in February he assured residents he was willing to look at alternative options.
Allen said he agreed to run studies on different methodologies and densities but that would involve a one-year delay, holding costs, new consents, and engineering works.
“It was simply not realistic”, he said, saying the property was purchased to keep his West Auckland-based staff at work during a looming recession instead of laying them off.
“We have worked hard to build good relations with the neighbours. It’s unfortunate that some of them have been hostile and aggressive, including filming our staff as they go about their work,” he said.
Allen said the homes are expected to be finished early next year as investment and build-to-rent properties.
Asked if the properties will be transitional homes for the community housing provider Vision West as neighbours believe, Allen said: “We’ve made no decision on how we will tenant them”.
The original consent was to pipe wastewater uphill to a property next to the development. In June Allen sought a variation to the consent to drill a gravity-fed wastewater pipe across Cleve Rd and 30m into Malarczyk’s property to a new manhole on his property.
In a statement, Watercare said in June this year Allen sought a formal notice of works, and it followed due process, which Malarczyk objected to.
“We have since offered mediation to help resolve the concerns of the owner,” the statement said.
Malarczyk insists he had no say about the sewer line and manhole being located on his driveway a few metres from his front door and lounge, saying there is already a manhole on the other side of his property that smells.
The development is on a section in Cleve Rd where a single duplex was located. Photo / Dean Purcell
He said the notice of works was hand-delivered and came as a total surprise, saying he had been unable to get any details of what was planned – “no drawings, no specifications, no detailed methodology of works, no proof that someone approached me for this connection”.
The council has advised Malarczyk and the neighbours that if they want to take the matter further they should hire a lawyer and consider a judicial review.
Ken said the group is talking to a lawyer about lodging a judicial review.
“It’s absolutely awful what’s happening to Tomasz. The pipe and manhole extend into his property rights a few metres from the front door. Shocking,” he said.
