Gables Neighbourhood Group

If you can see the cypress tree behind the Gables, people in apartments in this building will look at you.

 

Again we are fighting for reasonable development in our area, one with some sympathy for the environment it sits in. The Environment Court decided that a previous proposal of around 18 8m high apartments was over-use of the site in this area.

 

The new proposal is for 69 units, and 2 shops, to a height of 23 metres, nearly 5 metres above maximum allowed. Height will be at about the top of the trees at front and behind the current Gables.

 

Parking in street reduced by 12 places (4 parallel parks to replace 16 angle parks). Basement parking for residents only of 76 cars. No above ground parking.

 

Local Centre zone is supposed to be of community benefit. This will be a block of flats.

 

Worst is hard to see, but easy to smell. Combined drains overflow into Cox's Creek, thence Cox's Bay, Waitemata Harbour, Hauraki Gulf, then Pacific Ocean. This is not a river, so tides wash effluent back and forth for a while before getting out to sea. Overflows an average of 52 times per year, according to Watercare.

 

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Noticed the reek of the creek in Cox's Bay park, especially after rain?

It is output from hundreds of households connected to combined stormwater (rain) and wastewater (sewage) pipes overflowing into the creek. When you combine rain water with sewage, it is all sewage.

 

Where does the sewage go?

When it is fine (no stormwater) sewage is piped to Orakei Basin, thence to Mangere for processing.

 

When it rains, stormwater joins the sewage in the pipe down the street, but the pipe to Orakei Basin does not cope.  It overflows to Cox's Creek, over Cox's Bay mud flats (used to be a beach) to the Waitemata Harbour.

 

When the tide is going out, sewage joins the flow out to the Hauraki Gulf. If the tide is still going out, it joins the flow to the Pacific Ocean.

 

On the incoming tide, sewage joins the flow up the Waitemata Harbour until the tide turns, and it flows out towards the Gulf, picking up more as it passes Cox's Bay.

 

By the time it gets to the Gulf, if the tide is coming in, it joins the flow back up the harbour, picking up more as it passes Cox's Bay.

 

To reduce the unacceptable flow to the Harbour and Gulf, many houses have detention tanks to slow down the stormwater, filling up with rain and letting it out through a small pipe into the combined system. Provided it stops raining for a while, more water goes out the small pipe than comes in from roofs, so the detention tanks empty into the pipe down the road at a slower rate. This can take 3 fine days.

 

 

Watch a video of traffic When it rains hard, with little stopping, the detention tanks fill up. When clean water and sewage are comined, it all becomes sewage. This is too much for even the pipe to the creek. A ford forms in the dip of the road and footpath, sometimes quite deep. See the video of traffic driving through this, fondly imagining they are washing their wheels in rainwater.

 

When the rain eventually stops, detention tanks slowly drain, keeping up the flow down the pipe down the road so it is still too much for the pipe to Orakei Basin. It overflows into Cox's Creek, over the mudflats to the Harbour, then to the Gulf then to the Pacific Ocean. This stops when it stops raining for long enough for all the detention tanks to empty, and the pipe to Orakei Basin and Mangere can take it all. Measurements of water quality in Cox's Bay suggest this rarely happens.

 

Cox's Bay mud flats are not very nice underfoot, and the smell is well known. There is a sign warning people to keep out of the contaminated water in the Bay.

 

Most third-world cities pipe their sewage underground to reduce exposure of pathogens to the air, a health hazard. Council measures water quality at some of the harbour's swimming beaches, warning bathers to keep out when it is really bad. They no longer bother measuring Cox's Bay - it is always bad.

 

This is not a very effective way of draining our city's sewage, which is why most of it is piped to Mangere. Mayor Robbie is well-known for his major campaign to stop outlet at Browns Island in the harbour, piping it across to the huge sewage treatment plant built at Mangere. However, there are about 50 places, mostly in older Auckland, where this was too hard, and sewage still flows to the Harbour and Gulf.

 

There are plans to build a "big pipe" with associated pumping to gather all of these, and take their contents to Mangere. Problem is, it will cost around $1billion. Auckland has other things it wants to spend its money on, so we turn our noses away.

 

When it rains, combined stormwater and wastewater overflow to Cox's Creek, Cox's Bay, Waitemata Harbour, Hauraki Gulf then Pacific Ocean. Even if sewage from thousands of households are going into our Harbour and Gulf, there is no excuse for increasing it - we should be decreasing it. Mix flows over mudflats of Cox's Bay mixing with the air around some of Auckland's most presitigous real estate. Is this a health hazard?

Restricted Discretionary Activity is one which requires notification unless adverse effect on others is less than minor.

 

Under the current plan, this property is zoned Business 8 with Concept Plan. This proposal does not comply to the provisions of the Concept Plan.

 

Under the new Unitary Plan (not implement yet), it is zoned Business - Local Centre Zone.

 

In the new Unitary Plan, the following are Restricted Discretionary activities.

 

H11.4.1. Activity table under Use Accomodation (A3)

 

Conversion of a building or part of a building to dwellings, integrated residential development, visitor accommodation or boarding houses is Restricted Discretionary.

 

This building's primary purpose is residential accommodation.

 

Business - Local Centre Zone is supposed to be for social and economic well-being benefits for the community. This block of flats has no community benefit at all.

 

H11.6.1. Building Height (1)

 

Buildings must not exceed the height in metres specified in Table H11.6.1.1
This is occupiable building height 16m, height for roof from 2m, total building height 18m.

 

Building will exceed height by 4.91m.

 

The additional height and large footprint exacerbate effects of dominance, overlooking and shadowing.

 

H11.6.3. Residential at ground floor (1)

 

Dwellings including units within an integrated residential development must not locate on the ground floor of a building where the dwelling or unit has frontage to public open spaces including streets.

 

This building has 5 dwellings at ground level.

 

People are living within inches of the public - the thickness of a window away. Not nice for us or them.

 

Also underlines that this is not a community facility at all.

If you can see it from your back yard, it will look into your back yard.

 

This includes particularly properties in Jervois Road (South side), Kelmarna Avenue (West side), Albany Avenue (West side) and Buller Street (North side).

 

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If this affects you and you don't like it, please email to one or all of:

Sample Shadowing Examples

Many properties will have greatly reduced sunlight because of this building. Below are some of the worst.

 

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Shadowing Example 1: By 9am in the middle of winter, Jervois Road westerly neighbours still have no morning sun (Sun rises @ 7:34am):

 

 

Shadowing Example 3: At 4pm in the middle of winter, loss of sun extends to Albany Road (Sun sets @ 5:12pm):

 

 

 

Shadowing Example 2: Even at midwinter noon, the 2 houses to the south still have little sun.

 

 

This is despite following the height in relation to boundary rules in the new Unitary Plan (rules changed for south boundaries).

 

See also Overlooking shadows give an indication of which places will be overlooked.

16 angle parks are to be replaced by 4 parallel parks, and a few street trees. 12 parks fewer.

 

The Gables' car park holds around 50 cars, used mostly by Gables' patrons, and also by locals when all street parks are taken. These will all go.

 

The new proposal contains underground parking not accessible to anyone except residents of those apartments to which parks are allocated.

 

These parks will NOT be available to:
  • the public
  • visitors to apartments in the building
  • customers to the shops
  • apartment dwellers with no carpark assigned

 

Mind you, there are 50 (or is it 80?) bike parks. Ever used a pushbike to do the supermarket shopping?

 

Traffic will also be badly affected. Vehicles waiting at the lights will obstruct those trying to get in or out of either of the two entrances.

 

This will be especially bad for cars going into the top entrance - they will have to wait for the lights to change before they can enter.

 

All vehicles behind them will have to wait, including those coming down Jervois Rd from the city turning left to take this popular westerly route.

 

Headlights of cars driving up out of the carpark exits will sweep over the front rooms of the houses opposite.

 

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Two street trees, planted in 2003 with many others in Jervois Road, are not shown in pictures, so it may be planned to remove them.

 

 

This street tree is outside the east site on the side of the footpath closest to the road.

 

As they are taking up so much of the site, there remains no room for building activity, so the footpaths and road will have to be used.  It is unlikely the trees will survuve.

 

If there were room at street level for visitors, shop customers, etc then this space could be used for the building yard, and the trees would have a better chance of survival.

 

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This street tree is outside the west end of the property, on Jervois Rd.

 

Removal of mature street trees is a Restricted Discretionary Activity - requires notification unless effects on surroundings are less than minor.

 

The trees behind it are on the property - no mention of them are made in the pictures of the finished proposal, despite some of them (particularly a very fine Puriri) being large trees. We assume they will be removed as well, partly because the proposal is to dig a basement very close to the boundary - the trees would not survive.

We found an excellent planner and a lawyer to help, and fought the proposal at a Commissioners' Hearing. We won.

 

The developer appealed to the Environment Court, with Council defending the decision.

 

After a few very minor changes, Auckland city planners determined that the Council was not going to defend their commissioners' decision, so it was left to us to fight.

 

We did fight, and the Environment Court decided in our favour.

 

The main reason for objection to the proposal was that it was too large for the surrounding environment, and over-use of the site. Effects of dominance, and shadowing were unacceptable.

 

The current proposal is for many more apartments, and much higher (6 storeys). We are fighting again, against something which is so out of keeping with the surrounding area.

 

To join the Gables Neighbourhood Group, please email your name, address and phone number to: GablesNeighbourhood@gmail.com

 

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