Meadowbank block shapes up
Big shake- up for neighbourhood filled with lowrise homes
Eight century- old homes on stand- alone garden- filled Auckland sites will make way for a futuristic apartment block.
Work on one of the largest apartment buildings planned for Meadowbank i s expected to begin soon in what will be a big shake- up for the neighbourhood, filled with low- rise, wooden homes dating back around a century.
In an example of the city’s new intensification strategy, the neighbourhood will see Soto — a pagoda- style, futuristic, 58- unit six- level apartment block with seven three- level terraced places, at a height of more than 20m above the surrounding older homes.
Consent has been granted from independent hearing commissioners. Four submissions initially opposed the scheme and one was neutral. Two objectors subsequently withdrew their complaints.
The towering development will have 130 carparks and is planned for land near the major intersection by the BP service station at the strip of shops where Meadowbank Rd, St Johns Rd and Remuera Rd meet.
The apartments and townhouses could well be home to more than 100 people.
Cary Bowkett of development business Southside is about to begin marketing Soto which he says will offer electric car charging points for $ 1000 a carpark. The plan to build it was notified on a limited basis, meaning only some neighbours had a say.
Bowkett’s business has more than a half- hectare site at 6- 14 Meadowbank Rd, using a plan by architects Monk Mackenzie. People were consulted, he said. The company had worked with neighbours to address concerns.
“Most of the site was amalgamated over 40 years. Six had already been amalgamated and those owners are buying into the development.”
Bowkett wants 10 per cent deposits and says finance is in place. Southside has contracted builder Ganellen.
Immediate neighbours to the site, the Bethells, hired a barrister to lodge their written objection to commissioners.
Some of their complaints included: dominance, exceeding maximum height standards of 16m, exceeding maximum site coverage by 5 per cent, generating unreasonable noise and disruption, more than 350 traffic movements a day and loss of privacy.
But the Bethells had subsequently provided a letter supporting the application, subject to conditions being imposed, the commissioners’ report said.
The Raye Blumenthal Freedman Trust, which owns a Jewish communit y library on Remuera Rd, also objected in writing, but that had since been withdrawn.