By WAYNE THOMPSON
Owners of luxury houses in Ponderosa on the North Shore have lodged strong protests at the prospect of having Coronation Street-style homes nearby.
More than 94 objections have been lodged by residents to plans by Melville Ponderosa Ltd to build 81 of the three- or two-storey units on a 1.44ha site at Fernhill Way.
Another developer active in the Albany-Browns Bay area - Wickham Developments - made the only submission in support to a North Shore City Council hearing of the resource consent bid.
Consent was needed because such intensive housing development does not comply with the Operative District Plan, the high number of traffic movements, and the need to remove 9000 cu m of earth from the site.
In the site vicinity are five terraced housing developments of up to a dozen units, a large pink church, and the Ponderosa subdivision of high-quality homes.
The Ponderosa Residents Action Group said the site was overdeveloped and the council should rezone Albany to disallow such intensive development.
Resident Michael Davis said: "I'm concerned that making a quick buck is creating future slums and an eyesore for the present. This development will lower property values severely."
Council planners, however, supported the application, saying its effects would be no more than minor. They said the units met the council's urban design principles and, at one unit per 159 sq m , its minimum site density requirement.
A 30m wide council reserve would be an effective buffer between the development and existing homes, so there should be neither building domination nor loss of privacy.
They dismissed fears about problems with parking and traffic congestion.
Council staff also called "unfair" a complaint by the residents' planning consultant, Graham Parfitt, that the council and staff were "dancing to the developer's tune."
Mr Parfitt said the council showed unfairness and bias by declining his request to defer last Thursday's hearing date.
But the council principal planner, Lloyd Barton, said the council's hands were tied when the developer refused to change the date. It had a statutory duty to avoid unreasonable processing delay.
The commissioners will make their decision today.
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