Update for May 2020

Update on Mission Bay development
The proposed 8 storey development in the Mission Bay village continues to slowly work its way through the system.  You will recall that the resource consent application for this development was declined by the Auckland Council Hearing Panel last year, after which the developer appealed to the Environment Court.  The Environment Court requires the parties to participate in mediation to see whether a compromise solution is possible, and this was held over two days prior to the lockdown. The outcome of the mediation was that no acceptable compromise was found, and so the project now proceeds to the Environment Court.

During the first day of mediation, the parties opposed to the development (Auckland Council, Mission Bay Kohimarama Residents Association, Support Mission Bay Inc., and two private residents) laid out their primary objections again.  In particular, we were concerned about the visual impact of the development when approaching Mission Bay from Patteson Ave and Tamaki Drive, where the development would look totally out of character with the surrounding area.  We also outlined serious concerns over the apparent bulk of the development.

The developer undertook to review their design to see whether they could reduce those impacts.  They came back by the second day of mediation with a modified proposal which slightly reduced the height of some of the buildings and changed the appearance of the blank concrete wall facing south towards Patteson Ave.  Unfortunately they left the 8 storey building at the original height, and removed both the movie theatre and the second level of restaurants.  We saw this as a poor compromise; it made minimal improvements to the visual impacts while removing most of the public benefits of the development.  We, along with the other parties, rejected the compromise.

So now we go to the Environment Court.  The developer has now decided that they want to pursue their alternative design, and so will spend the next few months developing the new plans.  After that, we will get an opportunity to review the new design and submit our evidence relating to it, and then we have a court hearing.  This is expected to be early next year.

We find it hard to believe that the developer would even consider modifying a design for a Local Centre Zone in a way which removes local centre services and results in much less restaurant space than we have already, making the development almost purely a collection of apartment blocks.  But that is the approach they are taking and so we will need to engage our experts again to review the new plans and be prepared to testify in court.

We will share the new design once it is available.
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