A community watchdog says the Wellington City District Plan might as well be thrown away.

The council’s continual granting of exemptions to the District Plan is alarming says Di Buchan, spokesperson for the Wellington Civic Trust.

"We are becoming increasingly concerned at the almost irrelevance of the District Plan and the way the council administers it," says Buchan.

"The District Plan is a document based on community submissions from the public. It was argued in court and in the end reflects the values of people in Wellington. Now it’s meaningless, nothing more than pieces of paper.

"There’s no assurance at all that the public can rely on the Plan to protect its interests, protect the environment and the things we value, and the public consultation process it was founded on."

WCT has three areas of concern – the application for a height and windspeed exemption for the new building on the Maritime House site on Customhouse Quay, the granting of a resource consent for a six-unit, four-storey apartment block at Karaka Bay (against council officers’ advice) and the raising of the height limit for a section of Oriental Bay. In a culture of council leniency, developers appear to be taking a cynical approach to the District Plan, Buchan says.

Buckingham Asset Management (BAM) tore down Maritime House with a non-notified resource consent despite the proposed new building being over the area’s height limit. At that stage the council decided the breach was minor and did not require notification.

Permission was granted on the basis of plans for a 16-storey building. As soon as Maritime House was demolished BAM applied for dispensation to add two more floors. The new building requires a notified consent.

While Maritime House was being demolished, Project Manager Rob Noble was quoted in The Dominion Post, September 21, as saying the new building would be 18 stories high. A public notice calling for submissions on the 18-storey Buckingham’s Palace was not placed until September 29.

Real estate agent Bill Leckie, speaking for BAM, wouldn’t answer questions on whether the company decided on an 18-storey building before or after it demolished Maritime House on the 16-storey non-notified resource consent.

"There was no intention to build above 16 stories when BAM applied for the first resource consent. At some stage, and I’m sorry but I don’t know exactly when, a decision was made to add two more floors," Leckie says.

"From our point of view there has been nothing dishonest about the process."

Council’s decision to grant resource consent to developer Jan Johansson for the apartment unit at Karaka Bay was announced last week. Residents opposed to the
development are taking the matter to the Environment Court. Buchan says a small group of residents are paying to protect the city’s interests.

"Everyone offered input on the District Plan," says Buchan. "It reflects the values of the city. The way it’s being overridden means those values are also being overridden.

"These residents are protecting values the city as a whole values at an incredibly high personal cost.

"The District Plan is a farce. There’s no guarantee you can read the District Plan, as a basis for buying a property, knowing the building next to you is going to be no more than a certain height.

"The message to developers is it’s worth a go. Don’t worry. Apply to council and there’s a high chance you’ll get what you want."

Wellington City Council’s planning group manager Jane Davis says she cannot comment on the Karaka Bay proposal because it is before the court. She accepts that developers appear confident that exemptions will be granted but insists there is no basis for that confidence.

"Quite a few developers advertise apartments before a resource consent is granted," says Davis. "That is a big risk. There’s no guarantee that we will grant a consent – we don’t give many exemptions.

"Council has no control over what developers say and they are not persuaded by developers’ comments. Just because a developer says they will build an 18-storey building doesn’t mean we will rubberstamp it."

Buchan says the exemption in Karaka Bay and the potential exemption on Customhouse Quay bode ill for other parts of the city.

"We need to keep our eye on Oriental Parade. There the council wants to raise the building height."

Buchan says so many dispensations have been granted in the area that the limit may be raised to even up the heights of the buildings.

Manager of the District Plan Team Brett McKay says the height limit for the section of Oriental Bay below the monastery was raised because of the number of exemptions in the area. He says height limits in other parts of Oriental Parade have been given greater protection.

For more on this topic see: http://www.captimes.co.nz/news.aspx?p=32&n=36&