JOHN ELLIOTT: LOCAL NEWS
Are property developers running Auckland? An experienced politician recently told me that neither local board members nor city councillors have much say in how the city is run. “Developers run this city,” he told me. Researching the sale of 20 Cockburn Street, Grey Lynn and the subsequent removal of the old 1913 villa has done nothing to dispel that view. I want to say very clearly up front that the sale was an open auction, in February 2013, and the sale price was $2.762m. The land was zoned 6a, and there was no covenant in place which could prevent removal of the villa and the development of apartments in its place. That is exactly what is happening as this article goes to press, a heritage overlay was put in place in November 2013 - too late to save this villa. The old villa was built for prominent Auckland clothing manufacturer, Robert Greer, who also acquired the adjoining section for a family tennis court. Researching Robert Greer was much easier than finding out about the new owner, but good old Google search did the trick. The new owner is BK Holdings No. 10 Ltd. Does anyone know him? Obviously a big family! Perhaps a reader might have gone to school with one of his siblings - Number 8, or Number 4? I am imputing nothing at all illegal about Number 10 or his associated companies, but I do wonder what has happened to transparency and openness, when people register and run a labyrinthian network of companies like the new owner of 20 Cockburn Street has done. Why is such a tangle necessary or desirable? BK Holdings No 10 Ltd has a sole director - Andrew Laurie Montgomerie. Montgomerie is also the sole director, or in two cases joint director, of a huge number of companies including Blackstone Group Holdings, Orapiu Bay Villas (in liquidation), Montana Capital Holdings (struck off), Hillsborough Ltd (in liquidation), Diamond Back Nominees Ltd (registered 4/11/2013), Loha Enterprises Ltd (struck off) which had four previous names, and a newly registered company, Farrar Villas Ltd (10 February, 2014). Would it be too much of a coincidence that the recently removed villa was on the corner of Farrar and Cockburn, and that the new company has been set up to develop the site? Altogether, I located 33 companies, mostly with Montgomerie as the sole director, 16 had been struck off, four were in liquidation. I do not intend to make any judgment on Andrew Montgomerie. I do not know the man, and I have not been able to speak to him, but I leave it to readers to ponder why such a tangled web of companies is set up. Now back to the original question - are developers running Auckland? Let’s take the Bunnings decision, in Arch Hill. Virtually 100% of residents in the proposed Bunnings Big Box development area are opposed to the development, all seven Waitemata Local Board members are opposed, Waitemata Ward Councillor, Mike Lee is opposed, and yet Bunnings got the green light. Why? Because an independent commissioner said so. So, who are these independent commissioners, and why is council abrogating its responsibility to monitor development? If the Auckland Council wants intensive population growth inside current city boundaries (and I support that policy) they must have the teeth to make that policy happen. Evidence all over the Ponsonby News catchment area
is that this is not happening. Council either lack the legislative clout or the planning rules to guide development the way they want it to go, or they abdicate to independent planning commissioners. A council website media release of 28 February, 2014, invites applications for independent hearing commissioners. “The council currently has contracts with about 60 independent commissioners and these contracts are due to expire on 31 May, 2014. Under this review the council is seeking to appoint about 40 - 50 independent commissioners.” 60 for god’s sake! These people will sit on hearings for such purposes as resource consents, plan changes, bylaw dispensations and so on. Of course, as most people know, we have elected members to act for us. There was an election with public meetings, billboards, pamphlets, promoting various candidates and their policies. We made our choice (or about a third of us did), and now we find that 40 or 50 unknown independent commissioners, not councillors, certainly not board members, and not council planners or other officers, will make the decisions. Do you call that democracy? I don’t. One of the hardest working local board members I have ever known, and a highly intelligent qualified lawyer, Pippa Coom, suffered my abuse about this system the other night. It was quite unfair to target Pippa, but the system is just plain wrong. She has almost no say, neither do the other six members of the local board, and neither does our councillor, Mike Lee. We have umpteen faceless developers watching like hawks for an opportunity to jump in where they sense a weak commissioner, or one who sympathises with their development philosophy, against the will of local communities. No wonder people don’t bother to vote. They know their vote won’t mean a row of beans, and if they realised how little say their elected choice really has, they would be even more appalled. This system must change - transparency and elected councillors decisions must rule. In the meantime, rest in peace Robert Greer, a highly respected employer for many years in central Auckland. He would roll over in his grave at the machinations that have PN succeeded him. (JOHN ELLIOTT) F
DAVID ELMAN SHOES OPEN NEW STORE IN MILFORD CENTRE David Elman Shoes are very excited to announce that their new store opened in the Milford Centre at the end of last month. Milford Centre Manager, Laraine Vercoe is thrilled to welcome David Elman Shoes to the Milford Centre. “These classic European brands add to the exquisite fashion we have here and we are so pleased that David Elman is opening their only North Shore store at the Milford Centre.”
into an ambient and fashion-forward boutique shopping mall. We are very pleased to be joining great fashion brands such as Moochi, Storm and Witchery to provide the perfect footwear for any outfit for the North Shore customer.” F PN MILFORD CENTRE, 24 Milford Road, T: 09 486 1559 www.milfordcentre.co.nz
Brooke Monks, David Elman Shoes owner and managing director is delighted to be joining the Milford Centre family. “The Milford Centre has done a fantastic job of transforming
20 PONSONBY NEWS+ April 2014
PUBLISHED FIRST FRIDAY EACH MONTH (except January)