THE Wellington City Council appears powerless to stop developers manipulating the resource consent system.

On October 13, Capital Times revealed that Buckingham Asset Management (BAM) already had plans to build an 18-storey building on the former site of Maritime House when the company applied for resource consent for a 16-storey building.

The company appears to have manipulated the consent process. However, there is nothing the council can do about it, says the council’s principal planner Warren Ulusele.

"The council is obliged to look at each application for a resource consent on its individual merits," Ulusele says.

"We have to give them the benefit of the doubt and not say ‘hang on, have they got another proposal in their back pocket’?"

The 16-storey building breached the District Plan height limits for the area by a few metres but council gave permission for BAM to tear down Maritime House without having to notify the public.

Within days of the demolition, the company announced its plans for an 18-storey building on the site – a more substantial breach of the District Plan that requires a publicly notified resource consent.

BAM would not talk to Capital Times about why it went to the expense of drawing up plans for a building it never planned to build – other than to get the non-notified consent and enable them to demolish Maritime House.

At a resource consent hearing for the 18-storey building, it was revealed that BAM’s original plans were actually for a 17-storey building – the ground floor had not been counted in the original application. As a result, the new application is to erect a 19-storey building on the site.

Council officers advise against granting the consent to the 19-storey building. Twenty submissions were received, all opposing the application, one of them from council subsidiary Waterfront Watch Ltd. To avoid a conflict of interest, the hearing was held by independent commissioners Euan McQueen and Graham Spargo.

The commissioners adjourned the hearing, rather than closing it to clarify a legal point.

Ulusele is expecting a decision within a couple of weeks.