Land contamination and instability, a tunnel's intrusion and industry degradation were ammunition used against Ngati Whatua o Orakei Maori Trust Board to argue for lower leasehold payments on 20ha of Auckland land.
For the past few weeks, experts have fought in a boardroom at the Lumley Centre on Shortland St before Robert Fisher QC about the value of land on 39 leasehold agreements beneath dozens of buildings in the downtown waterfront area which could generate millions of dollars annually for the board.
Fisher's decision, due in the next few weeks, is awaited with intense interest by the residential, commercial and retail leaseholders on the Quay Park and Parnell land which could be worth $460 million.
Valuation experts fighting for lower leasehold payments are understood to have cited land degradation from decades of railway use, instability issues post-reclamation and the Britomart rail tunnel as a reason for lower payments. Years of use by trains and railway carriages rumbling through the area, spilling oil and other chemicals, spoilt the land and made it less valuable, they claimed.
Negative effects of traffic nuisance from a network of main arterial roading routes near the apartments and townhouses was also argued by the apartment and townhouse owners.
