Auckland council backs view-stopper apartments

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Auckland City Council is siding with a developer whose apartment buildings will intrude into protected views of Mt Albert.

Council officers are supporting a proposal to build seven blocks, up to five storeys high and containing 282 apartments, across the road from the St Lukes shopping centre.

They say the apartments will have "less than minor" effects on protected views of the Mt Albert volcanic cone.

The council's heritage manager, George Farrant, said some blocks in the St Lukes Garden Apartments development would exceed "fairly crude" view shafts, which were being refined to better preserve volcanic views. Three of the seven blocks would exceed the view shaft by between nearly 1m and 1.5m.

If new rules were in place, the development would not block the views to Mt Albert, said Mr Farrant.

But Volcanic Cones Society spokesman Greg Smith said the council had the responsibility of protecting volcanic zones and should not be working with private developers to destroy them.

There was no point protecting the cones if they were going to be built out. Rules established in the 1970s to protect volcanic views were meant to be tightened.

"Always it will only be a small amount they are being infringed by, but it is death by a thousand cuts - just chip, chip, chipping away and suddenly it is all gone."

The Panmure Community Action Group has joined the fight, saying the move to more high-rise and high-density housing threatens the views of volcanic cones.

Spokesman Keith Sharp said allowing one developer to infringe the rules set a dangerous precedent for the rest of the city.

The developer of the St Lukes apartments, Arthur Morgenstern, said he was caught out by a volcanic view shaft that rolled with the ground so as the site went into a hollow the view shaft went down.

"If you took a straight line from the site and went to the view shaft, I'm 3m under the view shaft.

"The Auckland Regional Council has been changing all these rolling view protections to make them straight protections."

His infringement was "a very technical glitch". He said he was happy to talk to the Volcanic Cones Society and make changes to meet its needs.

"I'm not ever, ever going to do anything in this city that would have a problem with people."

What are view shafts?

72 views to Auckland's volcanic zones, including Mt Albert, are protected.

New buildings cannot block these volcanic "view shafts" without council permission.

The Auckland Regional Council and local councils are reviewing the rules, which may be relaxed in some cases.