KEY POINTS:
A waterfront part of Orakei Rd is being targeted for development of hundreds of apartments, to the dismay of Remuera residents who fear loss of harbour views and worse traffic congestion.
Auckland City Council planning commissioners are hearing an application to have a resource consent for siteworks granted, without an opportunity for the public to put their views.
Commissioners adjourned the initial hearing to visit the proposed site of a four-level apartment building with 42 residential units at 246 Orakei Rd.
Formerly a motel site, it is on a promontory between the bridge over the Purewa Creek and the Orakei railway station.
The site is owned by Ngati Whatua o Orakei Maori Trust Board, which has leased it to the developer, Remuera Views.
Meanwhile, the council has decided to call for public views on an application for resource consent by Eden Lofts Trust to build 203 apartments on the other side of the railway station, at 228 Orakei Rd, a site next to King's Plant Barn.
The site was used by Jacobsen Creative Surfaces showroom.
Submissions will be accepted until January 30.
One of the directors of both development companies is Tony Gapes, who has built hundreds of units in Auckland.
They include the controversially bulky Scene One, Scene Two and Scene Three apartment blocks opposite the Ports of Auckland wharves.
An upset Remuera resident, Warren Tuohey, said he went to the hearing to speak against the proposal for 246 Orakei Rd being closed to public objections. "My point is that it was originally zoned for high-density housing some years ago only to allow the motel. That was eight units - this proposal is for 40-plus. The site is on the foreshore and it should be considered for a recreation reserve."
When the concrete sewer pipeline across Hobson Bay was replaced by a $47 million tunnel in the next two years, he said Orakei Rd sites would offer improved views of the harbour.
Many Remuera residents would be angry about losing some of their harbour views to new buildings and thousands of users of Orakei Rd would be affected by increased traffic from the developments.
Former Hobson Bay community board member Stephen Goodman said potential objectors to the developments were disadvantaged by the timing of the applications ... "right on Christmas holidays when people have other things on their minds".
Council planning reports say the site works proposal for 246 Orakei Rd requires removal of 33 generally protected trees, including a monkey puzzle, a ginkgo and a liquidambar.
The site is part of the tuff ring surrounding the Orakei Basin volcanic explosion crater.
The Orakei Basin Residents' Group said its concerns related to works in a coastal management area and to a scheduled geological feature, likely traffic impacts and that applications for both sites were being dealt with separately rather than together.
The developer's planning consultant, Green Group, said the two proposals were separated by the railway station land but were designed to form an integrated development.
On the 228 Orakei Rd proposal, the consultant said it would improve a largely unused commercial site.
"It is considered that effects arising out of noise, traffic and visual amenity are less than those that could be expected if the site were to be developed to its potential as business premises."
