KEY POINTS:
A $1 billion plan by developer Tony Gapes for the Orakei headland, including 1000 apartments and two 13-storey towers, was labelled a "Shanghai surprise" last night.
Auckland City councillor Aaron Bhatnagar made the comment at the Hobson community board, signalling to Mr Gapes that he had a political fight on his hands to develop prime coastal land five minutes from downtown Auckland.
Mr Bhatnagar, a Hobson ward councillor, has been a vocal opponent of previous plans by Mr Gapes' Redwood Group at Orakei.
"We have gone from East Germany by the sea to a Shanghai surprise," Mr Bhatnagar said.
Mr Gapes, Redwood development director Andrew Showler, and Richard Harris, a director of Jasmax architects who have worked up the new masterplan for Orakei, presented the latest proposal to the board.
The masterplan, developed in conjunction with Auckland City Council planners, would turn about 40 per cent of the coastal edge into public open space with esplanades, boardwalks and jetties.
But in exchange for donating esplanade land and making public improvements at a cost of $100 million to his Redwood Group, Mr Gapes wants permission for more intense development, which he says is needed to make the project commercially viable.
A key part of the plan involves building a community based around the Orakei railway station. This would include covering the train station with buildings and a plaza with shops, restaurants, cafes, health facilities, a gym, creche and commercial facilities.
There would be 1000 apartments and townhouses, including two 13 storey blocks - one with a rooftop restaurant - towering 59m above sea level.
Narrow and busy Orakei Rd would be widened, straightened and raised to allow for rail electrification.
The Orakei Residents' Society, set up to oppose previous plans by Mr Gapes for 42 apartments at 246 Orakei Rd and 146 apartments at 228 Orakei Rd, was flabbergasted when shown the plan on Monday.
President Warren Tuohey said it would be opposed every inch of the way.
Society member Linda Sheridan yesterday said Mr Gapes must be trying to scare people back to his earlier plans by coming up with a project five times the size of what planning commissioners rejected at 228 Orakei Rd.
The masterplan goes to the council's property enterprise board before being presented to the city development committee, where it will come under political scrutiny for the first time.
Mr Gapes said the committee had the power to reject the plan but that would be a vote for ad hoc development under the current mixed use zoning rules at Orakei.
Mr Gapes said if politicians, such as Mr Bhatnagar, rejected the proposed masterplan they would be giving up public access to the waterfront, 40 per cent public space, realigned transport and other benefits.
Mayor John Banks is staying tight-lipped about the latest plans for Orakei, saying he was interested to hear what Aucklanders had to say.
Mr Banks has criticised other developments by Mr Gapes and called his 228 Orakei Rd plan "frightening".
