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Part of a cliff has fallen in front of a two-level residential annexe of a Stanley Point tower block on the North Shore.
David Rowland, chairman of the body corporate and a resident of the 12-level 60-unit Devon Park, said a cautionary approach was being taken before a full assessmentof the low-rise building could be made.
People were no longer living in that six-unit annexe beside the tower because it was red-stickered but the tower was still safe to occupy, he said.
The apartments are at 45 Stanley Point Rd, have extensive views of the city, shore and waterfront, an outdoor pool and sell for $1 million-plus each.
“As far as the slip is concerned, it’s only affecting the west wing or annexe which is just six apartments,” he said.
Devon Park apartments, Stanley Point. Photo / Michael Craig
Two of those were unoccupied at the time of the slip: owners are away from one and the other is being re-tenanted.
Auckland Council inspectors visited on Saturday and red-stickered the annexe, Rowland said.
“Because the slip is only 3m to 4m away from the corner of the annexe, we moved people out of all those apartments on Friday night and put them in a hotel temporarily,” Rowland said.
Further slips in the Stanley Point area, as of yesterday. Photo / Michael Craig
“There’s no damage to the building. An architect has checked the plans and the building has been designed to take account of a potential slip. It’s sound,” he said.
Foundations were sunk to 9m into the bedrock below. Neville Price designed the building which was constructed in the 1970s.
“Around 8pm on Friday, one of the trees went. A resident heard that. What’s really fallen away is not so much the cliff but the pōhutukawa which got top-heavy,” Rowland said.
“The cliff hasn’t really collapsed. There’s earth and trees in the sea. The rock on the cliff remains pretty firm,” he added.
Tree maintenance had been carried out for many years. But the trees had become too heavy so had fallen, he said.
“It probably looks worse than it is. We’re certainly a lot better off than other people. I can see Bayswater from where I live on level nine and I can count 10 slips on the other side of the harbour,” Rowland said.
Back in 2000, this is how the tower and the annexe looked. Photo / Martin Sykes
A spa pool was on a cliff face across at that peninsula but had now been removed, he added.
Geotechnical engineers visited Devon Park this week and were planning further surveys on the land and buildings to prepare a comprehensive report.
“We will take that to the council in the hope then to get the restrictions lifted. Then we might start building a palisade wall to ensure there are no further slips,” he said.
“Hopefully insurance will cover that,” he said.
No one was hurt and no buildings were damaged so he hopes the annexe can be ready for reoccupation soon.
The plan is to rely on geotechnical engineers’ advice and Rowland said he had asked them to examine what options would prevent further slips.
“One of the possibilities is to put a palisade wall, with a drilling rig brought onsite to collect samples from the soil,” he said.
But cliff nails were another possibility, or both schemes might be possible. Nothing is decided yet, he stressed.
Auckland Council councillor Chris Darby, a Stanley Point resident who lives not far from Devon Park, said he was saddened by the situation at the apartments.
A team of 130 specially trained staff is being joined by a group of engineers, retired inspectors, as well as inspectors from Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities, and from other councils including Tauranga, Hamilton and Wellington.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand and urban search and rescue teams are also helping, using drones to survey streams to check for blockages that can’t be seen from the ground.
Auckland Council’s general manager of building consents, Ian McCormick, told the Heraldinspections of residential and commercial buildings began on Sunday morning in the most-affected parts of the city.
