Villa removal plan sets off alarm

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Herne Bay residents are fighting to prevent two renovated villas being removed only weeks after a similar uproar in Parnell.

Angry residents have formed the Herne Bay Peninsula Group and collected 182 signatures calling on the Auckland City Council to stop development at 15 and 17 Galatea Tce until the district plan is strengthened to preserve special character areas. The group will present a petition to the council tomorrow.

Galatea Tce resident Ingrid Galloway said the area was a character zone which had strict rules for additions and alterations but locals were horrified to find there was nothing to stop houses being removed or demolished.

The case follows the ongoing battle by Parnell residents to stop an Edwardian home in St Stephens Ave being removed so apartments can be built and a struggle by campaigner Allan Matson to save the inner-city Fitzroy Hotel from demolition. It comes two weeks before the council's much-heralded Heritage Week.

Ingrid Galloway said the group was trying not to make the case personal against the houses' owner, Andrew Body, but to point out that council rules were not protecting the houses.

"Even though they don't warrant being heritage spaces individually, as a group they add to the character of the street. By taking a walk in this area you will see what the council has approved to go in this area is shocking. Things that look like a warehouse or a fire station. Residents have just said 'we have had enough'," Ingrid Galloway said.

"We have bus tours coming down our area looking at what villas look like. In no other part of the world would this [removal of the villas] be allowed to happen. Even Wellington has protected its quaint little villas on Mt Victoria and Thorndon."

Ingrid Galloway said the problem with the residential 2b character zone was it protected the intensity of the area but not the architectural quality.

"What we are asking is the same criteria that we have to go to to renovate our villas should be applied to people who want to remove or demolish their villas."

Mr Body could not be reached for comment but a council spokesman said no application had been received to demolish or remove 15 and 17 Galatea Tce. The council had an application for additions and alterations at 15 Galatea Tce, which was on hold pending an arborist's report. The group was alerted to Mr Body's plans when he sought neighbourhood consent and is suspicious of his intentions for both sites.

The council's resource consent manager for the city, Karen Bell, said the issue of people purchasing land in character zones and amalgamating sites was becoming more apparent in the western bay suburbs.

She said the council did not have an answer beyond considering whether the district plan needed to be changed and the rights to demolish homes under the Building Act.

Western Bays Community Board chairwoman Catherine Hawley said it came as a shock to people that the district plan did not fully protect character zones.

"It's a real problem and it needs to be addressed. The sooner there is a comprehensive look at the special conservation zones and heritage values the better," she said.

Catherine Hawley said part of the problem was that since the Bill Birch cost-cutting report the council had adopted a hands-off approach to approving resource consents and less than 1 per cent of applications were now notified.