An 11-storey timber building planned for the thoroughfare has been denied consent, and it’s not just the passionate yimbies who are up in arms, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin.
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K Road developer to appeal council decision
The developer behind a proposed 11-storey commercial building near the new City Rail Link (CRL) station on Karangahape Road is heading to the Environment Court after consent was denied by Auckland Council’s independent hearing commissioners. James Kirkpatrick Group (JKG) will appeal the decision. The commissioners said the Fearon Hay-designed building would be out of keeping with the area and too large for the site, an empty lot near the intersection with Ponsonby Road. According to the Herald’s Anne Gibson (Premium paywalled), JKG chief exec James Kilpatrick jr hopes the Environment Court will hear the matter this winter and overturn the original decision so his company can build. Housing minister Chris Bishop, an avid supporter of greater urban density, has labelled the commissioners’ decision “insanity”.
The case for
The mass timber building was designed to target a 6 Star Green Star rating, the highest possible standard representing “world leadership” in environmentally sustainable building practices. Also in its favour is the government’s National Policy Statement on Urban Development, the Auckland-specific version of which will likely come into effect this year. Under the densification standards, which are still subject to change, Auckland Council will be required to “enable more development in the city centre and at least six-storey buildings within walkable catchments from the edge of the City Centre, Metropolitan Centres and Rapid Transit Stops”. The proposed building would be a five-minute walk from the Karanga-a-hape CRL station, which is set to “transform the neighbourhood into a major transport hub, connecting buses and trains from many areas of Auckland” when it opens next year.
The objections
The commissioners rejected the plans, which had already been modified once, due to the building’s “more than minor” impact on the surrounding area, arguing that there was evidence it would dominate the streetscape and clash with the area’s historic heritage values. The commissioners heard from Green Party-endorsed Waitematā Local Board member Alex Bonham, who said she was concerned by the building’s amount of glass and lack of onsite parking. The council’s urban design expert Chris Butler said “the development would result in a number of positive urban design outcomes… [but] these were outweighed by the adverse bulk and dominance effects on the Karangahape Road frontage of the site”. The designs included spaces for restaurants and retail along the building’s ground floor frontage.
A remarkable flair for saying no
In a Spinoff column titled ‘Nobody is as creative as Auckland Council at saying no’, Hayden Donnell argues the K Road decision isn’t anything new. “Auckland Council has been issuing bizarre consent denials with a prodigiousness and creative flair matched only by early-career Mozart,” he writes, despite “central government politicians of all stripes” emphasising the importance of new construction. “New Zealand, they argue, has a debilitating housing crisis caused in large part by councils not issuing enough resource consents for roughly 50 years straight,” Donnell writes. “Furthermore, the nation is currently a bit skint, and needs the economic activity generated by new residential and retail buildings.
“Auckland Council simply does not care. It cannot be stopped. The maestros won’t stop saying no until their symphony is finally complete and the city resounds in a great synchronised chorus of ‘consent application denied’.”
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