On Thursday 4 February, heritage groups from all over Auckland spoke with a united voice at the Unitary Plan Hearings. The Panel are considering Topic 079 – Special Character and Pre 1944 Mapping. The Character Coalition made a strong presentation, with statements from chair Sally Hughes, evidence from heritage architect...
Auckland councillor, Cameron Brewer has had an opinion piece in the printed Herald today, saying that “broken zoning promises will hurt at polls”. He comments that the recent upzoning revisions to the Proposed Unitary Plan will badly affect the eastern suburbs, where now there hardly any areas zoned single house...
Our December newsletter is available – see the Newsletters page. This has been a tumultuous year for heritage in Auckland, and 2016 looks the same, as the Unitary Plan hearings continue until July. We can only hope that the Hearings Panel takes a balanced approach to preserving the finite resource...
A positive heritage story for Christmas! Featured on the Stuff website this week was a lovely article about some quirky repurposing of heritage buildings around Auckland. Some good stuff is happening out there. Check out the article here.
Council yesterday released their revised maps for zoning in Auckland under the proposed Unitary Plan, and as indicated, the proposed single house zone has been substantially cut. Owners who were happy with their single house zoning in the notified plan in September 2013 probably would not have made a formal...
Spotted at Auckland Airport this week – Art of Remembrance fundraising Max Gimblett designed quatrefoils for sale to support the Friends of St David’s. What a wonderful Christmas present – see here for purchase details.
On Tuesday 8 December the Auckland Council Development Committee voted 11-7 to decline a heritage order for the King’s School Hanna Block. The council Heritage Advisory Panel had requested the Committee to grant a heritage order to halt the imminent demolition of the building and give time to negotiate a...
The restoration of Queen Street’s St James Theatre in Auckland has taken a major step forward with Auckland Council’s Finance and Performance committee committing in principle to make a conditional contribution of up to $15 million towards it. See here for more details.
At the Grey Lynn Festival on Saturday 28 November, Civic Trust Auckland’s stall presented information on heritage at risk in Auckland, especially the King’s School Hanna Block, and St David’s Church in Khyber Pass. We also explained the tortuous Unitary Plan process in basic terms and what the risks are...
This week councillors were briefed behind closed doors on the proposed changes to the single house zone in the proposed Unitary Plan, from the notified draft. The changes are significant – from 35% of the city zoned single house zone, down to 21% in some areas. This is a grave...