KEY POINTS:
Ponsonby and Grey Lynn residents made a final plea to stop the $250 million Soho Square development yesterday before planning commissioners retired to consider whether to grant resource consent for the project.
At one stage, Maree Quinn, who lives a block away from the current big hole in
the ground, said Soho's narrow internal walkways might earn it the nickname of condom alley.
Like Dr Ruth Watson, who lives within 500m of the Ponsonby site, she questioned the large office complex, the lack of shops and cafes and the effect of an internal plaza come the evenings and weekends. She predicted "a deserted, shuttered interior plaza where surveillance and security become major concerns".
Dr Watson said developers Marlin Group had offered a landscaped walkway through the site called Soho St, public space and enhancement and revitalisation of the area in return for their permanent gain.
Marlin wants resource consent to breach the permitted building limit on the 1.3ha site by 80 per cent and more than double the height limit in places. The development, which has resource consent for some work on the site, has attracted huge local opposition from many of the nearly 900 submissions.
Dr Watson said Soho St was simply a semi-covered walkway between shops that could become another danger zone or graffiti site. The developer's offer of 3500sq m of open space was simply walkways.
When it came to revitalising the area, Dr Watson said Marlin talked of a cinema or some cafes that were subject to the pressures of the marketplace. There were no plans for large open spaces, extensive planting, water features, art or community facilities.
"It doesn't take a technical expert to see that Soho is currently a bad deal."
Russell Bartlett, Marlin's lawyer, tabled an offer yesterday to increase the retail and cafe space at ground level from 499sq m to 4300sq m. This would be within the traffic requirements for the site, he said.
Graeme Easte, an Auckland City councillor making a personal submission, said nobody expected a small development there, but the community expected a more sympathetic one.
In a report, council senior planner Quentin Budd said the height and bulk of the proposal would alter the existing character of the Ponsonby area. The proposed buildings were "significantly taller" than others in the area.
Soho would also cause "adverse effects to the function and operation of the surrounding road network".
But he dismissed these drawbacks with the view that Soho would contribute to the "amenity of the surrounding environment" and provide a "significant positive economic benefit to area". He recommended the full development should proceed.