Cheltenham beachfront is proposed to be rezoned for three-storey housing. Photo / Alex Burton
Nearly a third of Auckland's historic villas and bungalows could be flattened for high-density housing under a new law passed by Labour and National in a rare act of unity.
Leaked documents, obtained by the Weekend Herald, show Auckland Council has surveyed 21,000 homes in Special Character Areas and found about 6500 could lose protection of their heritage values.
The list of areas earmarked for losing heritage values are contained in a council document, marked "confidential" and "work in progress", presented at a workshop for Local Board members this month.
Council chief of strategy Megan Tyler said it was disappointing to see work that could mislead the community being made public, saying the initial assessments are still in the early stages and incomplete.
The initial work found Devonport, one of the city's most historic and popular suburbs with tourists, could lose significant pockets of Victorian homes and nearby Cheltenham beachfront is proposed to be rezoned for three-storey housing.
This has provoked an angry response from Devonport Heritage, with chairwoman Margot McRae calling the changes "absolutely shocking" and promising a fight to the end.
The North Shore suburbs of Birkenhead and Northcote Point and pockets of villas and bungalows in Remuera, Mission Bay and St Heliers are also in the firing line after being found by the survey to have "very little, if any" heritage qualities.
The potential loss of thousands of kauri homes that form part of Auckland's identity stems from the passing of the Housing Enabling Bill, supported by the Auckland-based leaders of Labour and National, Jacinda Ardern and Christopher Luxon, and their MPs.
Under the bill, passed in December, people will be able to build up to three homes of up to three storeys on most sites with few planning rules and won't need a resource consent.
The two parties believe the new law will see as many as 105,500 extra houses built across the country in less than a decade.
Under the law and separate government plans to allow for apartments of at least six storeys close to big town centres and along transport corridors, the council has discretion to consider "qualifying matters" for exemption, such as heritage and where there is a risk of natural hazards.
The council survey in the special character areas (SCA) has assessed whether each property has high, medium or low qualities. Only high-quality houses will retain special character status. Medium and low-quality houses will lose protection and be rezoned.
Each house is being tested against six criteria - scale, relationship to street, period of development, typology, architectural style, and level of physical integrity. Houses have to pass five of the six criteria to retain special character status.
For practical purposes, boundaries are being set in areas where most houses have highly valued heritage qualities.
Special character areas are older parts of the city identified in the Unitary Plan with rules around managing their character. The proposed changes do not affect individual houses that have heritage protection under the Resource Management Act.
McRae said Devonport Heritage thought the suburb with a majority of streets dominated by old houses and a historic waterfront would be safe. The same went for Cheltenham.
She said the law allowing for three-storey blocks with no design requirements without a resource consent was frightening and could see buildings painted bright yellow or stripes on the Devonport waterfront and Queens Parade.
"People will say they are not going to do anything ugly, but it's taste isn't it, and someone will do something ugly," she said.
McRae was damning of National's part in supporting the new law, saying if "stupid Nicola Willis [the party's housing spokeswoman] and idiot Judith Collins [the party leader at the time]" had not got involved National would now be criticising the law.
She was also angry with the council for letting down historic suburbs like Devonport after mayor Phil Goff and planning committee chairman Chris Darby opposed the new law.
In October last year, Goff backed the Government's objective of building more houses more quickly but pointed out new building consents are running at record numbers and Aucklanders want to keep the best of the city's heritage and character.
"The council should have done better than this. We were expecting them to be more proactive and protective," said McRae.
Tyler defended the council's approach, saying the Government had come in strongly with how it wants Auckland to grow by requiring greater housing density around urban centres and rapid transport stops and passed the Housing Enabling Bill.
Like the Unitary Plan, she said, the council would put out some proposed approaches for public feedback next month before publicly notifying changes to the Unitary Plan for public submissions in August.
"By law, we must implement these changes. We can't simply 'roll over' existing special character protections for an area. The Government allows for some exemptions to modify mandated building heights but it's a very high threshold that must be justified by robust evidence," said Tyler.
The council, she said, proposed an exemption to the new law for areas of high-quality character leading to a review of the existing SCA and an initial assessment of where it should be retained.
"We have a long way to go. Aucklanders will have their say to help us understand if we're on the right track with the limited decisions we can make during public consultation in mid-April. As required by the Government, an independent hearings panel will then consider all submissions and make recommendations to the council on changes to the Auckland Unitary Plan."
The woman was shaken by the incident.