Brian Rudman: Chorus of complaint over consultation

Will Auckland City ever perfect the art of consultation? Whether it be inner-city shopkeepers revolting against the new bluestone paving or householders aggrieved by a new development casting a dark shadow over their future happiness the chorus is the same. Why weren't we consulted?

It got personal for me last week when a council mole alerted me to a new 80-seat restaurant, to be sited just around the corner from my home. The proposal had been ticked through by a planning fixtures committee chaired by councillor Graeme Mulholland.

It had been approved on a non-notified basis because, to use the dreaded mantra of the Resource Management Act, the adverse effects of the activity on the environment would be minor and written approval had been given by every person who might be adversely affected.

Tracking down a copy of the 84-page report, you discover that the bureaucrats had decided the requirement to gain the approval of "every person who may be adversely affected" had been satisfied by the developer doing a deal with the villa owner closest to the restaurant's proposed outdoor dining area.

That this was all occurring within one of the council's rare "conservation" areas, where bureaucrats have rules which reach down to the shape of the pickets we fence our section with, seems to have escaped the committee's attention.

They were also unconcerned about the effect on neighbourhood parking, though by rights the restaurant should provide 19 off-street car parks. Mr Mulholland accepted the applicant's traffic report that their traffic survey had found 100 on-street available carparks within a 700m radius of the restaurant, so parking wouldn't be a problem.

That it was done in late January, during the summer holidays when parking demand is at it lowest, obviously escaped anyone's attention. Also, diners will want parks as close as possible, not 700m away, so competing for closer parks with residents and customers from five or six other restaurants.

Mr Mulholland also approved noise levels of up to 50 decibels emerging from the outdoor area into the surrounding residential air up to 11pm, while mechanical services can reach 60 decibels. Both are much higher than the 40-decibel maximum allowed at night in a residential neighbourhood.

All heart, they did order, on heritage grounds, that "the colour scheme shall be within a tonal range so as to not dominate the surrounding built form".

It's not the colour tones that worry me, it's the aural ones. And the increased parking problems. But according to the council's risible planning rules, the effect on nearby residents like me will only be minor, so we had no say. Not even the right to know the project was being proposed so we could argue the toss.

Down in the CBD, the problem hasn't been lack of consultation so much as the feeling there's an unwillingness to hear what people are saying when consultation takes place. This hasn't been helped by CBD project leader Jo Wiggins saying in a private memo before the Vulcan Lane consultation process that "We should establish our preference and not present to stakeholders anything we don't want".

The success of the Vulcan Lane fashionistas in persuading councillors to back their fight to preserve the existing cobbles, against the bureaucracy's wish to bluestone the CBD from head to toe, has been a landmark victory.

It's roused the occupants of nearby Swanson Lane - and the editor of the Herald - to question the need for a full makeover of their street as well.

It must be the bureaucrats' worst nightmare. Where will their $200 million, 10-year strategy "for revitalising the CBD as one of the world's most vibrant and dynamic business and cultural centres" be challenged next? Khartoum Place? Queen St itself?

Of course the upgrade is about more than the floor coverings. New lighting is planned, with bus lanes and the replacement of foreign trees by natives. And as you know, if I had my way uniform verandas stretching the length of the street would top off the makeover. Sadly, no one seems to have taken this brilliant suggestion seriously. Not yet.

But I take heart from the victors of Vulcan Lane. And the restlessness festering in Swanson St.