New life for All Saints in the balance
The future of Palmerston North’s historic All Saints church and its iconic brick tower will be decided in a publicly notified consent process.
The outcome could dictate whether the earthquake-prone tower is strengthened or demolished.
All Saints is proposing to strengthen the whole building and demolish the baptistery wall to create a new entrance and a community space in front of and to the side of the building.
The partial demolition of the front wall is being opposed by Heritage New Zealand.
Vicar Nigel Dixon said the city council’s decision to notify the resource consent application for the alterations meant a long process was ‘‘coming to a head’’.
The church was closed in April 2013 because of its low earthquake rating.
Plans for a new entrance released in 2016 were unpopular with Heritage NZ and members of the community, forcing a rethink.
The current plans involve a new glazed entrance through what is currently the baptistery, and building a community area to the right of the building.
The tower would be strengthened, but would become too narrow to serve as a main entrance.
Dixon said the parish was expecting a stiff battle to gain consent to change the front of the church.
But he said the irony was that
if it was denied consent, it would not persevere with the strengthening project, and the tower might have to come down.
The cost of the strengthening and enhancement project could be up to $7 million.
Dixon said spending that amount of money could not be justified to keep a building that did not work as a living church.
‘‘It would be pure idolatry to maintain the building as it is because it is architecturally important.
‘‘It is meant to be a place of worship and community.’’
The century-old building stands on Church St on the corner of The Square, an area identified as a priority route.
The parish was put on notice two years ago to strengthen or demolish the tower, the most dangerous part of the building, within seven years.
‘‘There will be purists who want the building to remain as it is, but that is not an option for us.’’
Dixon said the parish took seriously its responsibility as steward of an iconic city building, but could not afford to end up with ‘‘a dead building’’ that did not work for worship and for community needs.
‘‘If the city does not support us and the project stops, the tower might have to come down, which would be deeply ironic,’’ Dixon said.
Fundraising for strengthening and enhancement is on hold pending the outcome of the consent application.
The council will publicly notify All Saints’ application once its deposit for the costs of the process is banked.
Members of the public and interested parties such as Heritage NZ will have 20 working days to lodge submissions.
If anyone wants to be heard, a public hearing will take place.
The council will appoint an independent commissioner to make a decision, which would be released three weeks after the hearing.
There would be a right of appeal to the Environment Court.