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controversial proposal for five apartment blocks and associated structures towering more than 15m above Auckland's distinctive Orakei peninsula.
The decision has delighted the 300-strong Orakei Residents Society, whose members and those of the Auckland Volcanic Cones Society were among 519 opponents of the scheme proposed by developer Tony Gapes and his Redwood Group.
But Mr Gapes, who has promised full public consultations over a from-scratch masterplan of the peninsula, said he intended lodging an appeal with the Environment Court today as a "backstop" to protect a $40 million investment he had already made in 3ha of land on both sides of Orakei Rd.
That includes a site on the eastern side of Orakei Rd, for which he has approvals for 42 apartments, and on the seaward side, where the commissioners have knocked back his plans for 146 more.
"We are pretty disappointed with the decision - it is obviously politically motivated," Mr Gapes said last night.
But he said he intended honouring its commitment to fund the masterplan costing up to $1 million for the wider area, which would begin with a public forum tomorrow where community members could offer ideas to a new set of architects charged with taking a fresh look at the Orakei landscape.
Although council officers supported Redwood's application for the larger development at 228 Orakei Rd, Auckland City Mayor John Banks attacked it outside planning hearings in January as "frightening" and Hobson Ward councillor Aaron Bhatnagar called it "East Germany by the sea".
But the planning commissioners and their chairman Les Simmons said matters raised in newspaper reports both during and since the hearing had no bearing on their decision.
Despite Mr Gapes' agreement to develop the masterplan with the city council, the commissioners said they still had to make a decision, since he had not withdrawn his application for a resource consent. They said it was essential to recognise that almost all submitters acknowledged 228 Orakei Rd as an appropriate site for redevelopment, and very few wanted it returned to open space.
"The constraining factor is how any redevelopment is to occur," they said. "The fact the site currently contains a large industrial building that is clearly visible and is visually incompatible in scale with other buildings within the surrounding environment does not in itself justify the replacement of this large building with buildings of a similar height or scale."
The commissioners found that, overall, the proposal "falls short of the environmental outcomes that can be reasonably expected for this coastal environment within the regionally and nationally significant Orakei Basin".
"It is accepted, however, that a modified proposal might be possible that is more consistent with the environmental outcomes expected for this locality."
Residents society chairman Warren Tuohy said that, despite his group's delight over the decision, he was concerned that he had yet to see a copy of the masterplan agreement and had lost faith in the ability of council officials to represent the community's interests while working on it with Mr Gapes.
He said that was because they had promised last year not to process any applications for the site in question before a scheme plan was developed for the whole area, yet started doing so a week before Christmas.
* Open day - tomorrow, 10am-7pm at 246 Orakei Rd.
