Residents lose 30-year fight with council
A group of Mt Eden residents have lost a 30-year fight to keep a business’ back access closed.
Haultain St was re-zoned in 1984 by Auckland City Council, from residential to industrial while adjacent street Wrights Spur remained residential.
A commercial building on Haultain St features a warehouse with a back entrance on Wrights Spur.
In the 1980s the then Mt Eden Borough Council created a reserve at the back of commercial building, stopping vehicles from accessing the property from Wrights Spur.
For more than 30 years, residents in the area have had to fight new tenants, owners and the council to maintain the reserve after repeated attempts to gain industrial access to the warehouse on site.
In the 1980s trees were planted on the reserve and in 1995 it was formally recognised by the Auckland City Isthmus Plan.
However, in November 2016 residents’ battle to save the reserve was lost after Auckland Council granted resource consent without notification and the trees were cut down in mid-June.
The property is now for sale and advertising dual street access.
Michael Neill, who has lived on nearby Brentwood Ave since 1975, said he was frustrated.
‘‘The council planners were negligent in not looking at the history of the site and the reasons for it being there,’’ he said.
Albert Eden local board chair Peter Haynes said he was ‘‘gutted’’ by Auckland Council’s actions.
‘‘Changing this quiet residential street into a thoroughfare for trucks without telling anyone is a slap in the face for both the local board and the neighbours,’’ Haynes said.
The new resource consent allows deliveries and collections between 7am and 10pm, Monday to Saturday of one per hour. Access would be limited to 6 metre long trucks.
Neill said residents had been left in the dark.
Auckland Council’s central resource consenting manager Mark White said under the Unitary Plan there were no restrictions limiting access to the site.
‘‘The application was not notified as the effects were considered less than minor.’’
‘‘Changing this quiet residential street into a thoroughfare for trucks without telling anyone is a slap in the face ...’’