KEY POINTS:
Developer Tony Gapes has redesigned and reduced the number of apartments at his latest Orakei development, says his father Don Gapes.
Instead of the original plan for 202 apartments, Mr Gapes' Redwood Group is now proposing to build 146 apartments at 228 Orakei Rd.
Other changes include setting five blocks of apartment buildings further back from Orakei Rd and providing roadside views to Hobson Bay and three protected pohutukawa trees.
Tony Gapes' development plans for the Orakei headland have drawn strong criticism from local people, including the fact they have learned about his first two developments right on Christmas.
The Orakei Residents' Society believes the Auckland City Council has bent over backwards to help Mr Gapes while ignoring the interests of 500 people who are opposed to his latest project at 228 Orakei Rd.
Mr Gapes submitted revised plans for five blocks of 146 apartments on December 11 and planners set a hearing date for January 21.
He already has resource consent for 42 apartments at 246 Orakei Rd, which are being marketed under the name Waterside as luxurious residences. The website shows two have sold.
The society and local Hobson councillor Aaron Bhatnagar have asked the council to delay the hearings until February.
They believe it would be difficult to prepare a case over the Christmas period when many opponents and professional experts needed to work on submissions are away.
Vital material on the revised plans will not be available until January 11.
The head of the council's regulatory arm, Mark Vinall, has refused to move back the hearing date, saying the Resource Management Act set out statutory timeframes for the processing of consents "and we endeavour to meet those".
He said the act did take account of the Christmas period by not including the period between December 20 and January 10 in the processing time.
But Anne Leijnen, a planning consultant working for the society, yesterday said the act allowed the council to extend the hearing to give it more time to address the application.
She said the application had been with the council for some time, Mr Gapes had chosen to change the design in response to concerns and submitted revised plans to council very close to Christmas. Council officers then decided to review the plans in a short period.
"They don't have to operate that way, recognising the time of the year andthe availability of experts," Ms Leijnen said.
She said the society was supportive of the concept, it just wanted to assess the detail "and the devil is in the detail".
