By BERNARD ORSMAN
AMP and the Auckland City Council are at odds over how much say the public should have on new downtown buildings.
The Australian-based insurance company said yesterday that it was not suggesting that it wanted to rewrite planning rules to exclude public participation, particularly in light of the backlash
to its 34-storey skyscraper on the waterfront that was approved without the public having a say.
Anthony Beverley, AMP Henderson Global Investors property manager, said the central area district plan dictated which applications should be notified for affected parties and the public to comment on.
"AMP has no problem with that."
Mr Beverley said AMP was seeking clarity where the council had discretion on modifications to plans relating to minor matters such as foothpaths and verandahs.
"There is a list of criteria around how the council deals with that. That is quite adequate and there is no requirement at all to go back to the notification process.
"What it [the list] doesn't cover is issues of a magnitude that require the council to decide if they should be thrown open to the public."
The council has resisted pressure to exclude the public having a say on control modifications, which AMP is appealing to the Environment Court.
In a submission to the court, AMP says it is unnecessary to open control modifications for public comment.
"Applications for restricted discretionary development control modifications are appropriately dealt with between the council and the applicant," the submission says.
Planner Marilyn Dodds said the council had rejected AMP's ideas because the local body wanted to keep the right to involve the public on control modifications if necessary. "Every application is assessed on its merits. If we think there are special circumstances where the public should be involved then we will go ahead and do that."
Marilyn Dodds said there were cases where issues to do with control modifications determined whether the council decided at the outset to publicly notify a development.
She said the council might lose the ability to publicly notify projects if AMP was successful in its appeal to the Environment Court.
"That is probably the thrust of where they [AMP] are coming from."
Planning committee chairwoman Juliet Yates said it was critical for the council to retain the ability to publicly notify applications that had more than a minor effect.
