KEY POINTS:
The Volcanic Cones Society is demanding work stop on a luxury house on the slopes of Mt Eden after Auckland City Council officers overlooked an act prohibiting steep cuts on Auckland's volcanic cones and gave the nod to cut into the mountain.
Society chairman John Street said last night it was scandalous for the council to protect the western side of Mt Eden, "yet here they are hacking the [eastern] side of the mountain away".
Members of the society will meet council officers on the site in Glenfell Place today to complain about a 7m vertical cut into the mountain.
Senior council planner Paul Arnesen said when the council granted resource consent to build a house on the site in 2004 it took no account of a 1915 act prohibiting steep cuts on Auckland's volcanic cones.
The council started advising people of the act's existence and potential impacts for resource consent applications only after the society complained in March about a similar incident at a property in Market Rd, backing on to the Mt St John volcanic cone.
Mr Street said the council was incompetent and incapable of implementing the act and it should seek a High Court injunction to immediately stop work on the site, even if it meant compensating the owner.
The owner, Ai Wen Zhu, could not be reached for comment but his architect, Wanbin Sun, said stopping work on the $1.3 million site would be disastrous for his client.
Plans approved by the council show a large, five-level house stepped into the steep site within a 9m volcanic site line restriction. The resource consent said "any adverse effects of the proposed earthworks and excavation will be no more than minor".
Said Mr Street: "[Auckland Mayor] Dick Hubbard has waxed eloquently about the need to protect the cones. The council's general policy is supporting their nomination for world heritage and yet the bureaucrats are doing nothing about protecting them when the law is there and so is the district plan and the Resource Management Act.
"Two years ago one of the justifications for putting up the rates was for the council to establish a volcanic cones department, which they have done. But from our point of view they don't do a bloody thing. All the protection is what we have to fight and battle for."
Mr Street also questioned spending an estimated $12 million to $17 million building a visitors' centre and providing transport to the summit of Mt Eden when they were "tearing the thing to pieces".
What went wrong
* The council granted Ai Wen Zhu permission to build a house on the slopes of Mt Eden in 2004.
* It did not take into account a 1915 act that prohibits steep cuts on Auckland's volcanic cones.
* Ai Wen Zhu started work with resource and building consent.
* The Volcanic Cones Society spotted the cut in the mountain and demanded work stop under the 1915 act.
* The society and the council meet at the site today to discuss the matter.
