'New era' prevents demolition of Parnell mansion

By BERNARD ORSMAN

The days of Auckland City's heritage buildings being demolished to make way for apartments are numbered after a landmark decision by councillors to save a stately Edwardian home built by the Paykel family.

In a shock move, councillors have issued an injunction to stop the two-storey Parnell house being demolished and sounded a warning to the developer, SMG Group, that they would see the company in court to fight plans for 13 upmarket apartments on the St Stephens Ave site.

Officers' advice that the action risked a multimillion-dollar lawsuit from the developer, who was given consent by the council in March to demolish the house, hardly raised an eyebrow at Friday's city development committee meeting.

Councillors Graeme Mulholland and Mark Donnelly led the pro-heritage mood to stop the house "slipping through our fingers".

The committee also got the ball rolling for a full heritage inventory across the city, mindful of a warning by the council's heritage manager, George Farrant, that his division of four staff were already overworked.

"In my view we are entering a new era of heritage protection in Auckland City," said committee chairwoman Juliet Yates.

It follows mounting pressure by heritage campaigner Allan Matson and Parnell residents to save the inner-city Fitzroy Hotel and the Paykel homestead.

Councillors rejected advice from city planning manager John Duthie that it was pointless scheduling the house because it had a demolition consent and it could lead to the council having to buy the property, valued at about $6 million, and pay compensation to the developer.

As a symbol of the fight to save heritage buildings, councillors took the unprecedented step of issuing a heritage order on the house.

The order will be publicly notified tomorrow. Once passed, it will protect the house, assessed as a category B building for scheduling, forever.

It is the first time the council has sought to place a heritage order on a building and it would join an exclusive club of five category A city buildings given a heritage order by the Historic Places Trust - the bluestone store in Durham Lane, Courtville Buildings in Parliament St, the Bank of New Zealand facade in Queen St, the Civic Theatre, and the Queen St terrace shops.

SMG director Lindsay Singleton said he had not been briefed on the latest developments but said the firm would not demolish the building, a reference to an earlier statement that the house was too beautiful to be demolished and would be removed.

Heritage protection

* There are two methods under the Resource Management Act available for councils to preserve buildings.

* Initiate a plan change to schedule a building as category A or category B, or:

* Issue a heritage order that protects a building forever.

* There are 103 category A listed buildings in Auckland City and 319 category B.