KEY POINTS:
The $250 million Soho development is oversized, over-scale and contains excessive carparking that will not be available for public use, says a planning lawyer.
Paul Cavanagh, QC, yesterday led a comprehensive case against the bulk and height of the controversial development on behalf of the ASB Community Trust, which owns and occupies the historic Allendale House on Ponsonby Rd. He said: "This is a development driven by the financial imperatives of the developer requiring that lettable areas be maximised.
"Will this be yet another planning disaster on the scale of the Scene One, Two and Three apartment buildings on Beach Rd?"
Trust chief executive Jennifer Gill told independent commissioners that the ASB trustees had consistently and unanimously opposed the Soho development.
She said the developers had been difficult to deal with, demonstrated a "callous disregard" for Allendale and, despite assurances, had not fixed damage to the foundation and walls of the 1890 building caused during excavation of the site.
The trust has hired Mr Cavanagh and several expert witnesses to oppose plans by developers Marlin to breach the permitted building limit on the 1.3ha site by 80 per cent and more than double the height limit in places.
The company already has resource consent for some work on the site, including the big hole in the ground for five levels of underground carparking.
The trust produced photo simulations of the effect of Soho on Allendale House produced by the visual simulation company Truescape. These were updated during the day, based on new information from Marlin, to show an even greater effect on the historic building.
Landscape architect Dennis Scott said the heritage and landmark qualities of Allendale House would be "significantly compromised" by the bulk, scale and mass of Soho.
Mr Scott said Ponsonby Rd had escaped the intensification and high-rise conversion of the central city and "for that reason it has retained a rich heritage and mixed community".
Heritage architect Jeremy Salmond said he agreed with the view of Auckland City Council's urban design panel that the "scale of the development is at odds with the consistent scale of the historic buildings in the area".
