Mad, bizarre, and foolish are just some of the words Wayne Brown, Auckland’s mayor, used to describe a decision to reject a $100m mass timber tower in downtown Auckland – set to become Auckland’s tallest timber building. It comes after the independent commissioners appointed by Brown’s council rejected a building covenant covering the 11-storey timber scheme – lodged by James Kirkpatrick Group at 538 and 582 Karahgahape Rd – over concerns around the size and scale of the development and its impact on the surrounding area.
Speaking to The Post, Brown has slammed those behind the ruling, saying that whilst councillors used to sit on decision-making panels, the sheer volume of resource consents has seen them replaced by “supposedly independent commissioners.”
“There was a time when those were semi-retired surveyors, planners and engineers with plenty of practical experience, but those days have gone too,” Brown said. “Attend a few courses and bingo, you’re a commissioner, bringing your lack of practical experience plus all your inbuilt prejudices to the process and, with it, some fairly weird and unexpected results.”
Wood Central understands that the building was to target a 6 Star Green Star rating, like the $200m University of Auckland’s Social Sciences building, which opened last year. Kirkpatrick – who is now taking the ruling to the environmental court – opted for mass timber as an alternative to concrete, reducing emissions and the weight of the building.
However, the Auckland Council independent commissioners quashed the plans with submissions against the development received from Waitemata Local Board members Alexander Bonham, Alan Matson and the Civic Trust of Auckland, which said the new development would negatively affect the areas’ heritage values.
“The principal concern for the board is the scale of the development,” the commissioner’s report said, adding that the scheme did not meet tests under the Resource Management Act (RMA) and ran contrary to the Auckland Unitary Plan objectives and policies.
And whilst Brown is happy that the $800m Fitzpatrick Group will challenge the “mad decision” in court, Chris Bishop, the NZ minister charged with overseeing the Resource Management Act, said the case “represents everything wrong with our current planning law.”
“A gravel pit has been prioritising ahead of an 11-storey Green Star office block next to a rapid transit stop in the central part of our largest city,” Minister Bishop said. “This decision is indefensible and buts, and it makes me even more determined to ensure our RMA stops such nonsense.”
The decision to reject the tower comes as Nate Helbach, founder and CEO of Neutral – the developer behind Ascent and The Edison – a 31-storey timber-and-concrete skyscraper that broke ground in Milwaukee earlier this month, urged NZ policymakers to reform building codes and learn from Europe and the United States, which are now leading the way in building mid-rise and high-rise buildings out of wood.
“We build exclusively with mass timber in Milwaukee, Madison and San Francisco as our primary structure,” Helbach told Radio New Zealand on Wednesday, adding that Neutral, now on its third building, “chooses mass timber as its primary structure because it’s carbon neutral.”
Helbach, who is in New Zealand to speak at the New Zealand Institute of Building conference, said wood “gives you this beautiful biophilic environment, (which is) perfect for residential and for-rent buildings,” achieving rental rates that exceed the 2-3% premium for high-rise and 5% for low-rise construction.
- To learn more about the scheme, click here for Wood Central’s special feature from last week.
