The Herne Bay home where trees could be felled to prevent danger to the site. Photo / Supplied
The Herne Bay home where trees could be felled to prevent danger to the site. Photo / Supplied
An imminent threat to land stability spurred Auckland Council to grant emergency tree-felling consent to a rich-lister who owns one of New Zealand’s most valuable residential properties.
David Hampson, Auckland Council’s earth, streams and trees team leader for specialist unit resource consents, explained why Ben Cook gained consentto remove pōhutukawa at his Herne Bay property.
Hampson said how a council officer had visited Cook’s place between the January floods and last month’s deadly Cyclone Gabrielle.
Cook requested action under a provision in the Auckland Unitary Plan which allows requests for urgent tree removal if they’re a threat to life or property.
Cook's Herne Bay residence, valued at $34m for rating purposes. Photo / Supplied
“The property owner followed correct protocol and on February 3, a member of the council’s specialist resource consents team visited the property along with the owner’s arborist to carry out an assessment,” Hampson said.
That officer saw evidence of major cliff instability near the six-bedroom designer Fearon Hay home on its 4032sq m site.
“During the visit, the council officer noted chasms and fissures around the cliff and an area close to the house which had already collapsed. Given the imminent threat to land stability, verbal approval to remove three trees along the western cliff face under the emergency works provision was granted.”
Hampson said emergency tree works were the alteration or removal of any tree or vegetation immediately necessary to avoid any actual and imminent threat to the safety of persons or damage to property or to maintain or restore utility services.
Such works are a permitted activity in the Auckland Unitary Plan.
“Works carried out under this provision do not require a resource consent. However, council advises property owners to contact the council with written advice from a professional arborist stating why these trees need urgent removal,” he said.
The council allows people to remove a tree without a resource consent if it falls on a house, has just fallen or split, or may cause an injury.
Its website says: “What you need to urgently remove a protected tree: you will need written advice from a professional arborist. The advice will need to state why the tree needs urgent removal, a description of the condition of the tree. You also need to provide photographs showing the urgency.”
Ben Cook decided to take action instead of seeing trees take the cliff down. Photo / Supplied
Alan Webb, a barrister specialising in planning, said he was curious to know what process the council had used to fast-track Cook’s consent. The authority had obviously acted with some urgency to expedite tree removal.
On Monday, Cook told the Herald that after the late January floods, he saw trees go down around him. He feared some big trees at his place might fall too.
That could mean part of the cliff facing west might go and take some of his section and warnings had already been issued that Cyclone Gabrielle was about to strike which could bring trees down.
So the owner of a big private jet made a pre-emptive strike.
“After the flood on 27 January, we saw from neighbouring sites, that large pōhutukawa under extreme rainfall - like the flood of 27 January - can fall and pull land away with them.
“We applied to the council to remove some trees on the western boundary under emergency works and received approval. We completed this task a couple of days before the cyclone, which came two weeks later,” Cook said.
Existing slips around the eastern side of the property were apparent in 2017 when this image was taken. Photo / Michael Craig
“It took us a few weeks to remove the trees which lay below the western part of the cliff at Home Bay. I think because of the image of trees sitting below the cliff, some bystanders have mistakenly thought the trees fell from a landslip event,” Cook said.
That article resulted in many Herald readers commenting on the article, backing his position.
“Good work and beautiful property,” wrote Chuck S.
“Well done Mr Cook and a rare well done to Auckland Council,” wrote Phiphi P.
Mark W wrote: “Pōhutakawa are everywhere. They are hardly endangered. I don’t know why people make such a fuss over them”.
Martin C was not so convinced: “But the land has gone on his northwest corner and the underside of the house is exposed - very obvious when you are boating along Herne Bay and looking back like I did last week.”
Cook said his house was never red or even yellow-stickered and he expressed satisfaction with the tree felling, saying no damage had been suffered.
His purchase set 2015′s national house price record when he paid $24m to John and Rose Dunn who developed it.
This is not the first time Cook has had to take action due to land issues on his big site surrounded by water on three sides and within minutes of Auckland’s CBD.
When Cyclone Debbie hit in 2017, he described damage to a big tree on the cliff face back then.
“What happened is that heavy rainfall caused a large pōhutukawa tree with established roots on the western side of the property to fall. This is different from erosion,” he said in April six years ago.
The damage was on the Home Bay side, just around from Sentinel Bay where Cook is having the crumbling sea wall rebuilt back then.
Cook said then he was paying for the extensive work on the cliff which extends beneath the eastern face of his property. Barges, skips and heavy earth-moving equipment, including diggers were then working at the eastern cliff edge beside the popular north-facing beach.
The 2017 cyclone caused damage around the point beneath Cook’s house on the western side. Cook said five years ago he was not concerned about his house.
New slips around the western side of the property in 2017. Photo / Michael Craig
“Engineers have happily advised that there is no risk whatsoever to my dwelling,” he said.
Lindesay Construction, a multi-award winning specialist in hi-spec building, was then working on the eastern stabilisation on the other side of Cook’s place facing the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
Cook told in March 2017 how the eastern cliff stabilisation work was important for the area.
“We are rebuilding a concrete crib wall which extends along the eastern face of my property, along Sentinel beach,” he said.
“We were conscious that a lot of people recreate on Sentinel beach, next to the crib wall and we believed it posed a safety hazard to the public. So we decided to be proactive and apply to council for a consent to rebuild the wall,” he said in March.
“As part of the rebuild, we have had to excavate the eastern cliff face of our property, which is why things look so messy presently. No part of our driveway has fallen down.”
