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Heritage and iwi concern helps derail church plan – developer

Flagstaff Team

Still on the market… St Paul’s Church remains for sale after developer Adrian Rowan withdrew his offer. Below: a Unitary Plan map
showing the areas (in pink) for which consent applications trigger the involvement of the Tūpuna Maunga Authority (TMA).

The sale of one of Devonport’s landmark buildings has fallen over apparently due to development concerns raised by council heritage officers and iwi.

The former St Paul’s church on Victoria Rd has been listed for sale since April 2021. Developer Adrian Rowan confirmed he had had a contract to buy the church, hall and grounds, subject to “due diligence”.

Rowan told the Flagstaff he planned to build a daycare centre on the site, which would enable him to spend the $500,000 to $800,000 needed to earthquake-strengthen the heritage-listed church, which dates back to 1919.

He said he had aimed to replace the church hall with an architecturally designed building, which would “complement and sit between the two churches” (St Paul’s and the neighbouring St Francis and All Souls). Parking would be underground.

However, at a pre-application meeting with Auckland Council and its heritage managers, it was clear gaining approval was not going to be straightforward and was likely to run into many potential hurdles, Rowan said.

His planner also sent the proposal to iwi planners, who made it clear it would be opposed by iwi groups and the Tūpuna Maunga Authority (TMA), Rowan said.

With iwi opposition likely, it did not make commercial sense to carry on and the offer to buy the site was withdrawn, he said.

Rowan was disappointed he had to abandon the St Paul’s plans.

He and his company, 505 Construction, previously converted historic All Hallows Methodist Church at Campbells Bay into an early-learning centre. That project won best heritage building in the 2019 Property Industry Awards.

He thought his plan was a good option for St Paul’s, which without a commercial use for the site was likely to be still an unimproved earthquake risk “in five years’ time”.

Rowan conceded some of the lower reaches of Takarunga would be dug into under his plan, but that meant the car parks would not be visible above ground.

Auckland Council general manager of resource consents Ian Smallburn confirmed that if the plan had gone further the TMA would have been involved.

“The TMA receives a regular list of consent applications that sit within a certain mapped area surrounding the base of each maunga.

“The TMA then has the opportunity to contact council regarding applications to further understand the proposal or request further detail.”

Additionally, under notification rules in the Auckland Unitary Plan, the council will specifically consider whether the TMA “is an affected person for activities requiring resource consent in relation to the maunga,” Smallburn said.

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