Bid to preserve cottages 'futile'

People opposed to the demolition of the art deco houses marched along the Auckland waterfront yesterday. Photo / Natalie Slade.

A developer says a bid to preserve three Spanish mission-style cottages in St Heliers is futile because they will be smothered by taller office and apartment buildings.

Developer Anacona Group suspended demolition work on the three 1930s houses in Turua St when Auckland Council sought time to consider alternatives over the holiday break.

Talks resume this week and at a protest yesterday, residents and the Art Deco Society urged the council to reconsider invoking a heritage order, giving more time to prove the buildings' historical value.

But lawyer for the land owner, Richard Brabant, said his client had building consent for a commercial redevelopment and needed to complete earthworks this summer.

Mr Brabant said he suggested to Mayor Len Brown last month the alternative of removing the buildings out of the commercial centre to a public reserve on the eastern sideof Goldie St. Here, they would beacross the street from other seaside cottages remaining from the erabefore the Tamaki Drive link to the city saw the suburb expand.

"The cottages [in Turua St] are a residential remnant, having been displaced by long-standing zonings of Business 2 land in the District Plan.

"They are not representative of commercial St Heliers village."

On their waterfront side, the houses had the single-storey Bayside shops and car park, which was zoned for 12.5m-tall buildings and was ripe for redevelopment.

To the rear of the business zone, a Residential 7 zone allowed 12.5m-tall apartment buildings.

"If you were to keep those houses where they are, you could get new development immediately in front of them and right up against the back of them.

"Being little cottages, they need land and space around them and maybe some planting. But the problem is you can't do that on that land."

Mr Brabant said an alternative was for the council to give them space - buying the land under them and the Bayside shops, which could be turned into a village green.

"There is a solution but there is a cost as well and there is a political decision to be made."

The council estimates it would cost $2.2 million to remove the cottages and $5 million-plus to buy the property and restore.

Save Turua Street protest spokeswoman Sally Hughes said the council had failed to include the obvious option: seeking a new design from Anacona, which incorporated the Spanish mission houses and two Victorian cottages.

"People are not only concerned with the Spanish mission cottages but with the destruction of a wholestreet and the significant change that will make to the character of St Heliers."