KEY POINTS:
The volunteer battlers of the Auckland Volcanic Cones Society have won another famous victory in the Environment Court, defeating plans to build multi-storey apartment blocks on the northern face of Mt Wellington-Maungarei.
Judge Craig Thompson and two commissioners have rejected Landco Mt Wellington's plans for a total of 49 units in three clusters. Also given the thumbs-down was the lily-livered compromise of a two-cluster development put up by Auckland City Council, the body supposed to be protecting our unique volcanic heritage.
Instead, the court has ruled that the contentious 2.4ha sliver of mountain slope between the mountain reserve and the surrounding 108ha Stonefields housing estate will retain its historic Business 7 zoning, which "in theory ... would permit a continuation of the quarrying activity, or grazing or horticulture".
The judge acknowledges that in the present context, any of the above activities would be a "fanciful" rather than "realistic" proposition, and writes that "within the limits propriety allows, we would encourage" the city council to take up Landco's offer, and buy the land to incorporate it into the neighbouring Mt Wellington Domain.
Given that the judgment, unless overturned on appeal, effectively renders the land worthless to the developers, now would be a sensible time for Auckland City to respond to the judicial nudge and knock on Landco's door with a shiny new cent and change-of-title documents.
The decision once again exposes Auckland City's failure to honour its own Volcanic Landscapes and Features Management Strategy, which pledges "to protect, preserve and enhance the outstanding environmental, heritage and recreational values of the [city's] volcanic landscapes and features".
In this case, we even had Robert Pryor, who prepared the strategy document for the city in 1997, appearing in defence of the compromise proposal, one which made a mockery of the strategy's basic principles.
Both the developer and the council bureaucrats failed to hear the clear message of Judge Thompson in his May 4, 2007, interim decision. At the time he gave the green light for the massive overall 2400-unit quarry redevelopment scheme, except for a 2.4ha pocket of the northern slopes which he ring-fenced and put on hold.
Landco's original plan was for 22 two-storey units along the base of the mountain in two blocks, separated in the middle by what the judge called "a relatively small open space to provide a viewshaft from what is presently the quarry floor to Maungarei".
At the interim hearing, the Volcanic Cones Society opposed any development of this area, using the ACC's volcanic landscapes strategy to back their argument. The judge agreed, ruling the proposed town houses "will be visually intrusive and a physical barrier for persons wishing to climb the cone's northern flank".
Landco and the council were invited to come back to court with a revised proposal. Amazingly, the developer replaced the rejected two-storey row, with three clusters of dwellings up to four storeys high, holding more than twice as many people as the original proposal.
The highest block had a three-storey block behind it, considerably higher up the slope. Landco argued that the 60-70m gaps between the three clusters provided the "viewshafts" the court and the cones society wanted. The city's compromise was to propose the centre block be eliminated.
Landscape architect Stephen Brown, on behalf of the cones society, told the hearing the proposed viewshafts would be "like the gaps between three teeth".
The commissioners agreed, saying the cumulative visual effect of the townhouses clashed with the principles encapsulated in section 6 of the Resource Management Act, requiring "the protection of outstanding natural features and landscapes from inappropriate subdivision, use, and development ... " They said "the values of the unbroken base-to-peak view of Maungarei/Mt Wellington are such that the proposal, or even the two-thirds council compromise of it is, in our view, inappropriate development".
In reference to the council's volcanic landscapes strategy, the commissioners said that given "the research and effort that went into its preparation, it would be odd to simply ignore it". A dig there, one presumes, at author Mr Pryor, who stood in court to devalue his very own strategy.
As recently as May, Penny Pirrit, the council's group manager of city planning, was writing to the cones society saying "the council will not be acquiring all or part of the outstanding land". She said it was the council's view "that the land can be developed in a limited way to provide 'reasonable use' while addressing the concerns of the court in relation to the impact on Maungarei". The recent judgment shows how wrong the bureaucrats were - yet again.
