Date set for ruling on mall's air space bid

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Newmarket residents will know in February if the Auckland City Council will let a developer build over a street for a giant shopping mall.

A special council meeting will decide if the Australian retail group Westfield can buy air space over a 110m length of Nuffield St for three levels of retail space and two of carparking.

The decision will have a major effect on an 11-level mall housing 260 shops, 12 cinemas and 3500 carparks.

It is also a test case on how far the council will go in allowing developers to build in the public air space above streets.

The finance and property committee yesterday voted to send the matter directly to the February special meeting for a definitive vote, instead of going through committee meetings.

In a report to the finance committee, acting city planning manager Karen Bell said the sale of air rights was a separate issue to Westfield's application under the Resource Management Act for a private plan change to allow the mall to go ahead.

She said the council should decide whether to sell the air rights before deciding if it accepted and publicly notified the private plan change.

Opponents, including the Newmarket Business Association, want the council to reject the sale, while Westfield believes the air space is fundamental to the $450 million project and a necessary link with the main shopping strip of Broadway.

Westfield also needs the air space for one of its two main, or "anchor," tenants.

Westfield New Zealand chief executive Grant Hirst welcomed the delaying of a decision until the council had all the information.

"It's a complex issue and should not be rushed."

Mr Hirst has said that if Westfield could not get air rights it planned a scaled-down mall that would be 50m from Broadway.

Newmarket Business Association chairman Darry Henry was pleased with council officers' advice that the councillors had absolute discretion to say no to the sale of public air space and that a refusal was not subject to appeal.