Editorial: Our cones a sight to savour

Two features combine to give Auckland an imposing setting: a stunning harbour and the field of small volcanic cones that stretches from Manurewa to the North Shore. The latter aspect is unique. Many cities have a wonderful seaside vista, and many have been better guardians of that than Auckland. But none is built round a dozen volcanoes. All the more reason, therefore, to ensure the city's volcanic views are not blighted, like those of the harbour.

Yet just that is being proposed in relation to Auckland's volcano viewshafts, or sightlines. Restrictions on building heights have ensured that more than 60 views, typical of which is the sight of One Tree Hill from the Tip Top Corner on the Southern Motorway, have been protected since 1976. Now, the Auckland Regional Council wants two-thirds of the existing viewshafts to be retained, and the rest dropped. Additionally, it wants almost 40 new ones added to the schedule. It says, quite logically, that new roads have opened up new vistas worth protecting, while trees and other features have rendered some sightlines redundant.

This should not be the stuff of controversy. However, individual city councils have chosen to portray the regional council's planned expansion as rubbing up against urban intensification objectives. Auckland City, for example, says it is alarmed that some of the proposed viewshafts "provide a lower height limit than what is either currently permitted or proposed under the growth strategy". To achieve the aims of that strategy, it says, building heights must be retained.

All this suggests that some of the lessons of recent history have yet to be learned. In the centre of the city, that same single-minded quest for a dense residential population has prompted a loss of connection with Auckland's other outstanding aspect, the sea. A wall of tall buildings along the waterfront shuts off the harbour from anything behind it. Where once panoramic views prevailed, there is not even a glimpse of the sea. Yet with a little attention to detail, notably in the angles at which buildings were constructed, a fair part of that view could have been preserved.

The blame for failing to police such building to an acceptable degree can be laid at the door of a former city council. But now its successor, which places a far higher priority on such issues, has developed its own case of myopia. The council has gone to great lengths in acting against shoebox apartments and seeking to protect Victorian and Edwardian villas in the likes of Ponsonby and Herne Bay. This has extended to micro-management in aspects such as fencing heights and front-yard landscaping. Yet the big picture, as represented by Auckland's most unique feature, seems to elude it.

Regrettably, Auckland City is not alone. The North Shore and Manukau councils have voiced similar qualms. Rather than acknowledge the importance, and the success, of the viewshafts, they seem intent on skirting round them. Perhaps because most Aucklanders seem to take the volcanoes for granted, council planners believe there would be little demur if the cones were to disappear behind high-rise buildings.

That must not be allowed to happen. The city councils must accept the merit of the viewshafts and accommodate them in their planning, rather than seek exemptions that would undermine the concept. This is not, as they suggest, an area where balance can be struck in the interests of urban intensification. The ultimate illustration of such thinking lies in the inappropriate development of the central city. A sense of openness has been lost there. The same fate must not befall Auckland's volcanic cones.