Project mars retirement dream

Pat Prescott

Pat and Dennis Prescott have spent 37 happy years living in the home they built in Mt Albert, Auckland.

It has been a cosy and family-oriented area, close to schools and the St Lukes shopping centre. The couple know their neighbours in the mostly 1920s bungalow-style homes.

But instead of looking forward to retirement, the Prescotts are faced with a five storey 15m-high development over their back fence which they have been told is none of their business.

The Prescotts and 57 other residents were not offered a say in plans by developer Geoff Hodgkinson to build 106 apartments on a former commercial site in Wagener Place on the grounds they would not be "adversely affected".

The area already has two high-density developments and another three are under construction.

Auckland City Council opted for "limited notification", including tenants of a neighbouring apartment block and an absentee owner living in Sydney.

Pat Prescott says she is "disgusted with the council and town planners who are meant to be here to protect us".

"The council has sided with the developer ... and we are left with something that looks like the side of Mt Eden Prison with bricks walls and high windows," she said.

Residents were not alone in condemning the development. An independent planner for the council, Jennifer Valentine, wrote a scathing report saying the project should be declined.

The urban design panel raised concerns about the "monolithic" project and suggested significant changes, most of which Mr Hodgkinson ignored leading up to the resource consents hearing.

Despite these warnings, the hearing commissioners approved the project, seeing no problem with the loss of eight protected trees, a shortfall of 46 parking spaces and the infringement of building-to-boundary controls with Kerr-Taylor reserve.

Council principal planner Andrew Gysberts said he went through "quite an exercise" to decide who should have a say.

"At the end of the day the environmental effects, which I was of the view would affect the Prescotts and the other two neighbours ... were addressed by the developer to my satisfaction," Mr Gysberts said.

He acknowledged the concerns of the urban design panel and Jennifer Valentine but said Mr Hodgkinson had made further architectural and other changes.

Mr Hodgkinson could not be reached for comment.