Protester Michael Tavares pictured today high up in the branches of the kauri tree that has been earmarked for the chop. Photo: Chris Gorman
The developer of land at the centre of a protest over the fate of a giant kauri tree in Titirangi has decided not to cut down the tree.
In an open letter, John Lenihan and Jane Greensmith, the owners of the Paturoa Road sites where the 500-year-old kauri and a 300-year-old rimu were scheduled for removal said they had been overwhelmed by the attention over the last few days and had been trying to come up with a solution.
"Let the trees stay including the Kauri which we have been calling 500, and the Rimu called 300. It doesn't matter how old they are as they now need to stay. Some other trees might have to go - this is the compromise bit, but let's keep it to a minimum.
Mr Lenihan said he had received emails containing death threats to him and his family and had passed them to the police.
"As a result of the social media frenzy of the last few days we have received threats on our lives, our children's lives and our property. As law-abiding citizens within the community of Titirangi, who have done nothing but followed a normal process of obtaining a consent to build a dwelling, this is clearly very disturbing and upsetting."
The Save Our Kauri group, who have maintained an occupation of the tree since Monday say they are relieved the Kauri and Rimu will be saved.
"We're heartened by this initial concession that these trees may be safe for now. This is only the first step in a process which involves this offer being formalised legally so there's surety that the tree is safe" said spokesperson, Aprilanne Bonar.
"We're here to save the Kauri. Once we have commitments about the long term preservation of these trees from the developer and Auckland Council, then we'll know we've done our job."
Protester Michael Tavares abseiled down from the Kauri today after a 72 hour vigil.
In a tweet this morning, Mr Tavares said he was "delighted" to hear the news.
"It's all happening this morning! we're delighted by initial reports!"
He said once the tree was safe "I'm happy to come down".
Mr Tavares indicated last night he would hand himself in to New Lynn police when he comes down from the tree.
In a tweet he said: "I accept that I trespassed on private prop."
Yesterday politicians started to weigh into the debate with Conservation Minister Maggie Barry saying on Facebook that she was surprised that Auckland Council decided not to notify their decision to remove the tree.
"As the Minister of Conservation I am very concerned that a mature Kauri tree is under threat of being felled. Today I've asked the Department of Conservation Chief Executive to have urgent discussions with the Chief Executive of Auckland Council to find a way through this. I've been told that the Auckland Mayor is now working with his officials in an effort to resolve the problem."
A petition with over 25,000 signatures was presented to Auckland Council this morning.
Councillors heard from council's resource consents and legal teams on the applications for 40 and 42 Paturoa Road. The committee discussed aspects of the consenting process including consultation with iwi and the local board.
The committee agreed to undertake a review of processes involved in assessing and granting the consent applications to undertake development on the sites at 40 and 42 Paturoa Road, to improve future council processes and to be included in Auckland Council's submissions to central government on its current view of the RMA and report back to the Auckland Development Committee.
Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse said the review will take a look at processes.
"This recommendation means we can take a look at our processes to see what we can do better, particularly in how we communicate with local boards and mana whenua. It also means we can continue to pursue best practice to serve our communities."
Here is the full letter from John Lenihan and Jane Greensmith
This is an open letter to the people of Auckland from myself John Lenihan and my wife Jane Greensmith, as today is our 20th wedding anniversary. Over these 20 years Jane and I have practiced as Architects who live and work in Auckland.
We have only ever built 2 houses for ourselves both in Titirangi.
The first house the year we got married, and I became a partner in RCG Ltd where I still work today. The second house we built 15 years ago and is the house our kids have grown up in. Both houses were on challenging sites, but as Jane's Dad who was an Architect too, used to say "those are architect's sites- difficult, complicated, fun and full of potential!"
As Architects we work in a city that we believe is under stress, as there is significant population growth. This is mostly from people like us having kids and because it is a great city.
But Auckland is under huge stress - it needs homes for extra people, and it needs affordable homes, and it needs homes of all types everywhere. This means change and many people hate change, and this adds more stress.
We wanted to be part of changing all this in our own small but optimistic way, so along with helping our clients achieve this, we thought we would try and build again and be our own client. We came across 2 lovely sites on Paturoa Rd and again they were "Architects sites".
The rules for building in this part of Auckland and a lot of other areas are in our opinion very complex, often contradictory and from an outdated planning paradigm that gets added to in adhoc ways that just keep making things worse.
The process to follow in making and processing applications is also too complex, contradictory and adhoc.
There is very little certainty, so it is no wonder that Auckland is not building enough.
Adding to this is the rapidly rising cost of land and building materials and you have the recipe for more stress. There are no easy answers to any of this, but we believe we all have to try. This what we teach our kids.
We believe that the situation that has occurred at Paturoa Rd Titirangi is the outcome of the stress Auckland is under and the systems and processes we are given to work under. We believe that there needs to be a financial return for undertaking building work. Banks require it when they give you a mortgage, they don't call it a profit they call it the banks "margin of risk". Building is very risky, difficult, time consuming and prohibitively expensive.
Jane & I did not make the rules but we have to work with them and follow the law.
If we don't, we lose the right to be Architects. We believe in law and order, but as Architects we also understand conflicting needs and different opinions, but to resolve these you need good systems and processes. We don't believe these are good enough in the present regulatory process. The Auckland Unitary Plan might be an opportunity to change this, but not by keeping those old systems and paradigms. Maybe we need to try some brand new things.
Over the past few days we have been overwhelmed with the agendas of Council, Politicians, Protesters, and so on. We were quite normally private people but now we have been dragged into being public figures. We don't have media training and crisis management skills and there are some who want us to take all the blame.
Our family, friends and colleagues and clients have been supporting us. So we have had to learn, adapt and change, because we are Architects and that's what Architects are trained to do.
However we don't want to play the games of others, games of blame, conflict, and abuse, instead we have been trying to come up with solutions where no-one loses everything but we all compromise, and is something new and hopeful that looks forward and not backward.
This is our Plan - Architects call it a design solution;
1. Let the trees stay including the Kauri which we have been calling 500, and the Rimu called 300. It doesn't matter how old they are as they now need to stay. Some other trees might have to go - this is the compromise bit, but let's keep it to a minimum. Trees grow faster than you all think.
Our wise elderly neighbour reckons the Kauri "500" is only 70 years old like him.
2. Let's turn these two sites from a place of conflict and division to a place of hope, a place to come together and plan a different future.
3. Let's be innovative and consider new processes and new rules and prototype these and make it part of the Unitary Plan Process.
4. Let's build on these sites as we need to keep property law intact and create homes. Our NZ is about family and community and nature. Can we try and have it all with small compromises?
5. Let's build affordable, sustainable homes and try and fit as many as we can on these sites so that it works economically, socially and environmentally.
If we throw out the current rules we could do something a lot better than where we had got to with these houses.
6. Let's take Jane and I out of the equation and give us fair compensation for our land and efforts to date as we have not broken the law and we need to encourage others to build and not be punished. Let's respect the laws we have and try to improve them in the future.
7. Let's allow Treescape and Vector, Iwi and Council to own the sites on the public's behalf and let's forgive them too. Give them a chance to try something new and create something better from this current mess. The compromise is they have to work together as a team and communicate quickly and professionally.
That's our Plan and this is what Architects do.
We make plans for the future.
We hope everyone can support this, because then it will be the best 20th wedding anniversary!