Meeting to discuss Three Kings Quarry
Development plans at the Three Kings Quarry are sitting suspended.
At present there are two decisions which affect construction at the former quarry site between Mt Roskill and Royal Oak.
These two decisions will be discussed in a meeting on September 13 hosted by Greg McKeown of Three Kings Community Action and Harry Doig of the Puketapapa Local Board.
The first decision regards an Environment Court interim ruling made at the end of July.
The ruling essentially put the site’s developer Fletcher Residential on the back foot over its plans to develop a $1.2 billion housing estate on the site.
This occurred after an appeal was brought forward to the Environment Court by the South Epsom Planning Group and Three Kings United Group over plans that would allow Fletcher to build up to 1500 dwellings.
After a 10 day hearing the court outlined 13 issues Fletcher must address before continuing construction with its original plan.
However McKeown says Auckland Council has now adopted Fletcher’s plans for the quarry into the Auckland Unitary Plan without considering any of the Environment Court rulings.
He says this means Fletcher has applied for the same plan two ways, one being the original ‘‘private plan’’ which went through the Environment Court. The other being under the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan.
‘‘The council’s position now is ‘well we appreciate that it’s still going in the Environment Court under the plan change, but that was under the old rules of council’.’’
McKeown says as a result the council has said the Unitary Plan is what now matters, not the original private plan which went through the Environment Court.
Fletcher Building housing chief operating officer Steve Evans says the judge at the Environment Court issued an interim ruling asking for all par- ties to respond and collaborate further. ’’There are elements of this interim decision which we agree with and will take forward. This includes issues such as modifying the housing at the eastern edge of the maunga.’’
He says Fletcher does not intend to completely disregard the interim decision.
The public meeting hosted by McKeown and Doig will discuss the major differences between the two decisions on Tuesday, September 13 at 7.30pm at Three Kings Primary School.
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