KEY POINTS:
Promoters of a high-rise development at Orakei got a roasting from Auckland City Mayor John Banks and councillors for taking the place of those in charge of the development to present a briefing on it.
One of the men, council consultant Terry Mansfield, was also ticked off for an alleged conflict of interest and for previously putting Mr Banks on the spot about his views on housing intensification.
The Auckland City Council's city development committee meeting was yesterday expecting to hear from Tony Gapes, of the Redwood Group, and Richard Harris, director of Jasmax Architects.
But the committee was told the men were on holiday and their shoes were being filled by Mr Mansfield, development manager of Redwood Group, and Greg Boyden, another Jasmax director.
The pair outlined the current stage of development of a masterplan for the Orakei peninsula between the Orakei Basin and Hobson Bay.
Options included a billion-dollar development which they called ambitious, challenging, and precedent setting and included two "landmark" 13-storey apartment towers.
They said it would be of high quality design and integrated with public transport to become Auckland's first transit village.
After the pair made their presentation to the committee - earning a rebuke for running over the allocated time, questions were asked as to why Mr Gapes and Mr Harris were not present.
Councillor Graeme Mulholland said that was "quite unacceptable" as he had expected to hear from Mr Gapes about "very important aspects" of the proposal.
Mr Mulholland also noted that Mr Mansfield was a consultant for the Redwood Group and the Auckland City Council which he found "totally unacceptable" because of the apparent conflict of interest.
Mr Mansfield apologised for the absence of Mr Gapes and Mr Harris and said no insult was intended.
Mr Banks picked up the concerns, claiming Mr Mansfield and Mr Boyden had been sent as monkeys to the organ grinders, who were not present.
Mr Banks asked whether Mr Mansfield was on the payroll of both the council and Redwood Group, and whether he gave advice to the same council officers as he was dealing with in the Redwood Group matters.
Mr Mansfield said he did consulting for both parties but not about the same projects.
Mr Banks said that was an error of judgment, but Mr Mansfield countered that had been transparent all the way through the process.
"I'm not sure what the problem is," he said. Mr Banks responded: "Therein lies the problem."
The mayor then had Mr Mansfield confirm that he had once publicly put him on the spot as to whether he supported housing intensification.
Mr Mansfield said he did and it had been inappropriate.
Mr Banks said if the proposal put before the council was an example of such intensification, then he was opposed to it.
He asked if if any community group had supported the proposed development.
"What we're hearing from the community is they don't support you," he said.
Mr Mansfield said that on open days there had been up to 70 per cent support. He could not name a community group in support.
Committee chairman Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga said he was not going to beat up on Mr Mansfield or Mr Boyden but was disappointed the expected people were not present.
Mr Lotu-Iiga considered the conflict of interest issue was huge, and he would have appreciated disclosure of that. He advised that next time the right people should come to the committee meeting prepared.
Orakei Residents Society spokesman Neville Darrow earlier told the meeting there was strong local opposition to the proposed development.
Mr Darrow said Redwood Group's consultation with the society had been poor, and the plans had been revealed to the media before the society saw them.
The views of the society had been completely dismissed, he said.
It had not wanted a high-density and high-rise development, but rather a sensible design which fitted the natural contours of the land.
