By BERNARD ORSMAN
A contaminated business site in Westmere is the latest battle ground in the fight by communities opposed to high-density housing developments in the suburbs.
Developer Grant Rutherford wants to build 29, three-storey units on the Garnet Rd site but he has run into opposition from locals, who want to protect the area's Edwardian character.
The site, occupied by an upholstery business and a pet supply store, is contaminated with levels of arsenic, chromium, copper, lead and other compounds that exceed the recommended residential guidelines.
Three Auckland City councillors, Juliet Yates, Noelene Raffills and Faye Storer, sitting as planning commissioners, are expected to approve the development with conditions, after hearing 270 objections opposed to it and just two in favour.
Westmere is the latest community to get angry at council bylaws that give developers virtual carte blanche to build high-rise developments on commercial land in suburban areas.
Down the road, residents set up Positively Grey Lynn in April to stop plans by property developer and television reality star Pat Rippin to build two apartment blocks in a small pocket around Surrey Cres.
Other angry communities include Avondale, Panmure and Glen Innes. Groups are now gearing up to fight the latest council plan allowing whole suburbs to be rezoned for multi-storey housing.
A spokesman for the Old Mill Village Preservation Society, John Loof, said the Garnet Rd development was totally foreign to the Edwardian character of the neighbourhood.
The proposal is sandwiched between two other high-density housing blocks in Garnet Rd but at the rear of the 5511sq m site, the three-storey townhouses are only metres away from the boundary of existing houses.
The development has a density of one townhouse per 190sq m - within the guidelines for the proposed form of innovative housing. The adjacent zoning of residential 5 allows one house per 500sq m.
Sue Simons, a lawyer for Mr Rutherford's company Bellamour Holdings, said it was not viable to build one unit per 500sq m as suggested by opponents. The costs of buying a property of this size in Westmere meant it had to be developed for intensive housing.
Ms Simons said if Aucklanders wanted to build a bungalow on a 500sq m site they would have to go and live in Taihape.
Council environmental health officer Bin Qiu has recommended that Bellamour Holdings remove all contaminated soil from the site to eliminate the potential risk to human health.
Bellamour wants to remove only contaminated soil from landscaped permeable areas and private outdoor courtyard areas.
Locals fight developer's dream
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