High-rise war looms on city skyline

BY RYAN EVANS

Another high rise waterfront development proposal is shaping up as the latest battleground in the war for the future of New Plymouth's skyline.

About 100 people have opposed the proposed Kawaroa Apartments development – a 25m high block of luxury flats – 15m higher than permitted – next to the distinctive Richmond Estate building.

Building heights is fast becoming one of the city's biggest challenges as developers look to cash in on demand for central accommodation, while opponents fear each development is one step closer to a Surfer's Paradise look.

Earlier this month, an independent hearing commissioner turned down an application from the Waterfront Hotel to extend its building by three storeys to a height of almost 22m.

The commissioner said the physical dominance of the building would be too great and would negatively effect the character of the area.

The future of the Kawaroa Apartments proposal will also be hammered out in a New Plymouth District Council hearing.

This week, staunch opponents of the apartments development told the Taranaki Daily News they would fight the proposal.

Lois Leonard, the manager of the Devonport Apartment building, which sits directly behind the development, said the body corporate had hired legal representatives to argue its case.

"To fight something like this, you need their language and know the laws that govern the Resource Management Act."

She said the proposed apartments would block views and sunlight to Devonport residents and some would dip out financially, having invested in their flats.

Richmond Estate resident Colin Smith said the feeling of residents there was largely against the development, for similar reasons.

But one of the men behind the proposal, New Plymouth dentist Rob Bristow, said the developers felt what they were proposing was appropriate for the site.

"We would say adding three storeys to the Waterfront is very different to putting seven storeys where we want to put them," he said.

"It's a different situation.

"This is democracy at work. It [opposition] is perfectly understandable and people should have their say."

Waterfront Hotel owner Sue Drought said she was disappointed at the outcome of its hearing.

"It's sad for the city. The city will come to a standstill if they keep saying no to these things," she said.

"New Plymouth will never have a lot of high rises because there's not the money around.

"We're not the Gold Coast, but people are a bit scared of that, I think."

She said she would be disappointed if the Kawaroa Apartments got the go-ahead after the Waterfront proposal was turned down.

"You can't give it to one, if you can't give it to the other."

The Droughts are still considering their options and that could be an Environment Court appeal, although no decision had been made, she said.

People might have considered the recent Waterfront decision set a precedent for future development, but that was not the case, the council's consents manager Ralph Broad said.

For one thing, the Kawaroa proposal sat in a zoning area where the height restriction of buildings was even lower than the limit near the Waterfront.

Buildings in the "Business B" zone could not be higher than 10m without a resource consent.

"There are similarities. They're both in the coastal environment, but different coastal environments," Mr Broad said.

"We have the same considerations, viewshafts, landscape and local character and buildings, but the answers may not be the same."

The proposal was first put to the council in 2008, but hearings have been delayed while more information about it has been asked for and reviewed by the council.

Mr Broad said a hearing date had still not been set and the council was waiting for independent landscaping impact assessments to be prepared.

The hearing would not be in front of an independent commissioner because in this case the council itself was not a directly affected party, Mr Broad said.

The council opposed the Waterfront extension because it would have been taller than Puke Ariki, if approved.

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