A paradise potentially lost

There are strong historical deja vu parallels playing out in our city as developers and Wellington City Council appear determined to proceed with their enormous, out-of-scale plans for Shelly Bay. In 1913, Days Bay, in Eastbourne, was also up for development, with a proposal for 100 buildings units. It took public pressure to finally protect the land. The struggle involved many famous names: Richard Seddon, Katherine Mansfield’s father, Harold Beauchamp, and the largest public donor, Mrs W. R. Williams, battling it out. It was a fight between two visions; a large housing development or a national park for all. If Wellingtonians hadn’t protested and won, the green recreational spaces in Days Bay today would have been gone for good.

We now have a mirror situation with another iconic and strategically sensitive area, Shelly Bay. Only this time the plans, which will change the face of our harbour forever, are for intensive housing; the proposed scheme allows for 352 units, with a change in the law permitting buildings to be constructed up to 27 metres.

Under the HASHAA, the Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Act, you can build non notifiable developments which are not subject to consultations with anyone who is not an adjacent landowner. The council representing ratepayers’ money is that neighbour. All of the council’s transgressions, such as not enough car parks, green spaces, and public amenities, are allowed to be dismissed as minor, as the act excludes democratic public discussion of these variations.

How did Ian Cassels’ Wellington Company get its hands on this heavily contested area? By managing land bought by Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust, then by forming Shelly Bay Ltd with PNBST. China’s Fu Wah Capital, Beijing Construction Engineering Group and China Construction Engineering Group are now potential partners too.

But marketing the development as another Sausalito is just silly. Sausalito, the seaside town in San Francisco, is idiosyncratic, eccentric, representing a multiplicity of architects and developers over many years; diversity is its strength. What happened to unique? You have a piece of land like Shelly Bay and you want to make a replica!

Another rabbit out of the hat – overseas buyers will soon be allowed to purchase only new-build residential properties. Creating a potential foreign ownership stampede to Shelly Bay is quicker than you can say, She Sells Sea Shells by the Seashore.

Warning: In July 2017 PNBST sold three lots in Shelly Bay to Cassels. But clarification has been sought from the developers whether the land was sold without the 75 per cent approval vote required by Taranaki Wha¯ nui iwi.

Other concerns:

Traffic: The unintended consequences of a mega development will mean traffic lights at the junction of Shelly Bay Rd, necessitating further clusters on the two roundabouts free of them along Cobham Drive. A 13-year construction window, plus a thousand building operatives, and in a nanosecond you have severe traffic congestion backing up past the Basin Reserve.

Infrastructure: None exists at the moment. So what will happen? Ten million dollars of ratepayers’ money will help bury services. Sewerage is a tricky one as it has to connect with effluent from Miramar then travel on over to Moa Point.

Rising sea levels: Nobody wants them but they’re happening regardless. In leasing our councilowned land to the development we are exposing ourselves to a depreciating asset.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. In the end we need to ask what is it we’re going to get here, and is it what we really want? Is it going to be architecturally memorable or a nightmare without the excitement? And is it worth all the disruption to finally benefit 1000 people?

‘‘Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ’Till it’s gone, they paved paradise to put up a parking lot’’ (Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi).