KEY POINTS:
The Historic Places Trust and Ngati Whatua have given permission to a developer to dig up an important pa site in Orakei to make way for 146 apartments.
Ngati Whatua have sold leases on the site they regarded as "wahi tapu land". The trust is happy for developer Tony Gapes to "modify or damage" part of the archeological site.
Mr Gapes plans to remove 49,000cu m of soil from the site on the Orakei Rd peninsula, which was once a pa site and sits atop the crest of the Orakei Basin volcano tuff ring.
Auckland City Council planners are supporting Mr Gapes' application to interfere with the archaeological and geological features of the sensitive coastal site to build five, 15m-high apartment blocks at 228 Orakei Rd. He already has resource consent for 42 apartments at 246 Orakei Rd.
The plans have drawn vehement criticism from the Geological Society of New Zealand, Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society and the Volcanic Cones Society, which had Sir Edmund Hillary as a patron.
In an "initial assessment" of the whole Orakei Rd peninsula prepared in 2002 for the council, archaeologist Dr Simon Best concluded that "as a site type the pa ... appears to be unique, in Auckland at least, due to its situation on a peninsula". This, "and its position, 4km from the centre of Auckland, puts it in a category of heritage importance second only to the volcanic cones".
Dr Best noted Ngati Whatua regarded the area as "wahi tapu land", quoting a tribal spokesman as saying it had "special spiritual, cultural and historical tribal significance".
After selling the leases at 228 and 246 Orakei Rd to Mr Gapes, Ngati Whatua agreed for him to develop the sites.
Last May, Ngati Whatua chief executive Tiwana Tibble said Mr Gapes could modify the land at 228 Orakei Rd, saying part of the site was in close proximity to a scheduled archaeological site "but that the site was extensively modified in the 20th century".
The trust's Auckland regional archaeologist, Bev Parslow, said while the site had been damaged in the past, "it still possesses important archaeological values ... and is of significance to Ngati Whatua". She agreed for work to happen on the site, subject to earthworks being monitored in accordance with archaeological guidelines.
The Volcanic Cones Society and Geological Society of New Zealand cannot fathom how the council could support the development when it has pledged to increase the protection of Auckland's volcanoes and support the nomination of the volcanic field being elevated to Unesco World Heritage status.
A consultant planner hired by the council to review Mr Gapes' latest plans, Michele Perwick, said uncertainties about the nomination meant "it is not a relevant consideration". Any potential effects on the geological feature of the site were "minor", she concluded.
Geological Society president Dr Bruce Hayward said Orakei Basin was one of Auckland's more iconic volcanoes and "arguably the city's best preserved example of a tuff cone with a wide, water-filled crater".
"Any multi-storey building that arises above the crest of the tuff ring and its pohutukawa mantle will substantially damage the view of this volcano and should not be allowed".
Volcanic Cones Society chairman John Street said the council should observe the district plans which stated "the development of private land is sympathetic to the volcanic feature".
Mr Street said the construction of a large apartment block on the corner of George and Morgan Sts had been ruinous for the tuff ring around the Domain.
