Mark Donnelly: Building relationships can help save our heritage

St Heliers residents opposed the demolition of these buildings on Turua Street but failed to save them. Photo / Natalie Slade

Opinion

I think the mayor and Auckland Council need to keep working. The issues around the Turua Street properties and their proposed demolition were complex and seemed to have been put into the "too hard" basket by the mayor and the councillors who voted against the heritage order.

I'm sure Mayor Len Brown and those councillors didn't enjoy making their vote against saving these properties. But their responsibility shouldn't have ended there.

In my view they needed to keep looking for solutions - even at a late hour. A heritage order could still have been put in place to gain further time, and despite advice to the contrary, it isn't necessarily a costly exercise for ratepayers.

The key is to understand the developer's position, and to then use the power of the council to explore every possible option. Yes, there are private property rights at stake - but as landowners we don't hold these in isolation.

This developer is intending to profit from developing in this area - no doubt benefiting from the current style and character of the area. But will he enhance that character for other landowners and businesses, or is he reducing the overall value of the area?

I'm sure the developer saw this as a straightforward project, and probably didn't anticipate the local community reaction. His risk now is to continue to underestimate the depth of community feeling. I wonder how this may now impact on his ability to sell or lease the development.

What tenant is going to risk an ongoing community backlash? Will the local community just forget the issue, and support businesses in the new development - or will they be reminded constantly of what was lost?

The council's role is to work with all parties, and to be innovative in exploring options. It could have funded preliminary design work to investigate options to incorporate the houses into a new development. It could have looked at helping the developer achieve a return by taking a holistic view of any other District Plan constraints on the site such as floor areas, parking controls, etc.

It could even have looked at transferring any lost development potential from this site to another of the developer's projects.

But all this requires a strong political will. It is not good enough to take a half-hearted approach.

Already the mana of the mayor's office has been damaged by this issue.

As a former councillor I've been involved with a number of these issues - often when they were brought to our attention by heritage campaigners like Allan Matson.

However the project to me which most demonstrates the ability of a council to bring parties together was the Methodist Church building in Mt Eden. This was led by former councillor Greg McKeown, who spent seven years seeing this project through to completion.

This case was similar in that the church had consent to demolish the 110-year-old church and to replace it with a block of shops.

The local community opposed and things had become very tense between the church and community.

As the consents were in place, some thought the issue was lost. However Greg and I started to meet the various groups to understand the issues. What came out was that there was some flexibility, and through some creative thinking a solution was found.

This was a three-way partnership between the church and its congregation, the local community and the council.

All parties had to contribute. A trust was formed, and the council entered into a partnership to restore the church and create a local community facility.

It was crucial that the local community got involved. They created a group, and started fundraising as well.

There is now a full three-way partnership - a great outcome which required political leadership, firstly from Greg McKeown, and also from John Banks over both his terms as mayor. It took seven years but the refurbished church and community facility was opened last year.

What lessons can be drawn from this example that might be relevant to Turua St? Firstly it's never too late to try to do the right thing. Next, that proper communication and building relationships is crucial.

And also that the council is a powerful organisation, but it often needs a creative ideas process to realise its true potential.

And lastly that all involved need to see a real political will, which shows true determination to achieve a positive result. All parties will then respect the process.

It is good to aim for a more liveable city, but grand spatial plans won't achieve that - it will really come about through getting all the small projects right, and ensuring that as a city we get the best new developments that add to the quality of our city.

* Mark Donnelly is a former Auckland City councillor