The townhouses at 44 Ventnor Rd, which are nearly done and now to be finished. Photo / Supplied
The townhouses at 44 Ventnor Rd, which are nearly done and now to be finished. Photo / Supplied
An almost-finished but stalled 13-unit Auckland townhouse project, frozen by court order for months, has been granted a stay of execution.
Developer Kurt Gibbons has won two new consent decisions, allowing him to finish the places at 44 Ventnor Rd, Remuera.
Independent hearing commissioners Richard Blakey and Kitt Littlejohn ruledthat resource consent for the places can be processed non-notified, meaning no one will have a say.
In addition, today Gibbons won a new land-use consent, the final document he needed to get workers back to his site, stopped since November when neighbours won their court victory.
Gibbons said today his twin triumph was a big step forward and construction crews could now get the rest of the cladding on, interiors finished, landscaping done, buyers could settle purchases and move in.
Developer Kurt Gibbons said the whole exercise of trying to halt the townhouses was a waste of time and expensive. Photo / Supplied
But he remains unhappy with the court order stopping the places from being finished for almost five months.
"This whole exercise has been a complete waste of time. Our homeowners were meant to be in there by Christmas. We're looking forward to handing over the keys in eight weeks' time," Gibbons said today.
Places, which each have a carpark, were sold for $1.1 million to $1.4m each, he said. The irony was that under new planning rules, none of the 13 carparks would be needed and each townhouse could have been much larger.
However, he said he was keeping the bigger picture in mind and construction crews would be on the site on Monday.
Last November, Justice Gerard van Bohemen in the High Court at Auckland allowed an appeal against the council's resource consent for the apartments.
Brabant said the townhouses looked like a motel block. Photo / Kenny Rodger
Resource management lawyer Richard Brabant and wife Eleanor, commercial developer David Pederson and wife Tracy and Bayleys agents Vicki and Gary Wallace were among the applicants who challenged Gibbons and the council's non-notification and resource consent granting.
"The council did not turn its mind to the effects of building intensity on neighbourhood character and residential amenity," the judge ruled.
The 1600sq m site had only one house on it before work started there.
"It is absolutely horrific. It looks like a motel block," said Richard Brabant, who lives two doors away.
The judge said the neighbours might have been deprived of their rights to be notified of the scheme for the land and to have their views taken into account.
Gary and Vicki Wallace. Photo / Norrie Montgomery
After the new non-notification decision was issued this month, Brabant said: "The current situation is the developer made a revised application and appealed to the Court of Appeal. Independent commissioners decided a week ago the revised application could proceed non-notified. The neighbours are taking legal advice."
Gibbons Co said the townhouses were of a contemporary design with high ceilings and light-filled rooms. Two and three-bedroom places have been built.
"Begin the life you deserve in Auckland's most coveted suburb," it said when marketing the places.
But the court decision was not flattering about how the townhouses won consents originally.
The proposal for such a significant development had not been properly assessed, Justice van Bohemen said. Neighbours might have been deprived of their rights to be notified of the scheme for the land and to have their views taken into account.
He even cited the Government's intensification moves on Auckland to allow more houses on sites in the case whose respondents included developers 44 Ventnor.
"I recognise that there will be prejudice to 44 Ventnor and disappointment to the council that a proposal for a more intensive use of a large site in a residential zone in Auckland is being held up when there is a strong policy impetus in the National Policy Statement - Urban Development and the Auckland Unitary Plan for more intensive development in residential zones," he said.
The decision was also issued at a time when the Government was looking to enable even greater intensification of certain residential areas than that currently provided for in the National Policy Statement, the judge noted.
