Let’s make the Ponsonby Pompallier - a win-win for Three Lamps.
As residents in the greater Ponsonby area digest the implications of the government’s edict on urban planning and housing solutions, the National Policy Statement – Urban Design, council officers are already padding the streets, tablets in hand photographing and recording details of each and every one of the 30,000 properties that sit within the Special Character Areas and/or Historic Overlays designated in the Auckland Unitary Plan.
Each property will be assessed against six criteria to qualify or not, as the council in due course may decide, for exemption from the requirement to allow six storey developments in the central city zones within 10-15 minutes walk from transport hubs.
Mayor Phil Goff has vowed that the bulldozers will not be tearing down villas willy-nilly, nor will there be pepperpotting of high rises amongst heritage homes in the historic suburbs. Councillors and engaged citizens grappled with the determinations of these zones and categorisations during the formulation of the Unitary Plan, but it seems here we go again. A defence of the heritage and historic amenity values is once more called for.
Simultaneous with this discussion, the council is currently assessing a resource consent application for a major new development – the Ponsonby Pompallier - which will transform Three Lamps. For Urban Collective, the developers of 286-306 Ponsonby Road, the NPS-UD is a timely reinforcement of the vision for Three Lamps, designated as a Town Centre zone (see H10 of AUP) and tagged for evolving 21st century urban centres that support sustainable growth and quality living environments.
As opposed to residential streets that may be affected by the edict to increase density, this is an ideal site for the huge redevelopment.
But Ponsonby Road is also deemed a Special Character Area (for description see p108-114 of Schedule 15, 15.1.6.13 of the AUP) and if just some of the clauses of the Unitary Plan D18 Special Character Overlay (see below) are applied to this proposal, we should hope it will be notified so the community can have its say about what it values now and into the future because this building will certainly set a precedent and more will certainly follow.
Clauses include:
(11) Discourage the removal or substantial demolition of buildings that contribute to the continuity or coherence of the special character area as identified in the special character area statement.
(12) Require new buildings, alterations or additions to existing buildings, or infrastructure, which are within the overlay but are not character defining or character supporting buildings, to maintain the integrity of the context of the area by providing quality design, materials, colour and decoration which respects and enhances the built form and streetscape of the area.
(13) Require additions and alterations to existing character defining and character supporting buildings, to be compatible with and respect the special character and existing scale of development.
(14) Encourage the ongoing use and maintenance of buildings in special character areas.
But, not withstanding the proposed restoration of the heritage building at 286-292 Ponsonby Road, if this development is approved in its current format - an imposing contemporary five stories looming over the heritage precinct with 14 multi-million dollar apartments and an aesthetic that appears to have little relationship with its historic surrounds – the opportunity to satisfy heritage amenity values and reinvigorate active community by increased residential intensity and diversity may be lost.
Height restrictions in Town Centre Zones already allow for five stories, so why not 50 affordable apartments that can offer hope to first home buyers who have grown up in the community, or value what it offers as a place to make a home and are currently priced out? Or what about the aging downsizers who long to remain in the suburb they have built homes in for 30 years or more but struggle to find suitable options?
Let us support the needs of the old and the young with services close to home that enable lifelong community engagement and thriving energised local town centres. Let us sustain diverse communities, not build monoliths that exclude. (JOHN ELLIOTT)
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Published 6 August 2021