Devonport Heritage Chairpersons’ Report Annual General Meeting, 12 October 2025

Well another year has gone by dominated by Central Government’s mania for forcing

intensification on a reluctant Auckland.

-But the year began with a flutter of concern over Peninsula Capital’s attempt to Fast Track its

proposals for the 12 buildings it owns in the Devonport town centre.

This came as a surprise because they hadn’t laid out their plans to the public.

They were turned down for Fast Tracking but there was a huge outpouring of concern from

heritage enthusiasts.

In our subsequent meeting with them, Peninsula Capital continued to say they want only the best

for Devonport and will respect the heritage buildings they own.

-Trish Deans and I took part in two very successful sold out “Our Devonport’ events following

the pecha kucha, audio visual format – explaining what it is Devonport Heritage has done over

the last 30 years, along with several other speakers.

-We also forged ahead with the Devonport doco which we announced at last year’s AGM.

We have commissioned retired documentary producer Colin McRae to make a film that

encompasses the history and present day activities of Devonport.

The doco will be wholly owned by Devonport Heritage and we believe it will be a legacy film

that will screen first at the Vic and then be available on YouTube.

It will be filmed and scripted pro bono but we will need to pay for it to be professionally edited.

-The committee has been working hard on ways to raise money for a fighting fund for the Plan

Change 120 hearings next year and also for the film editing.

-Much of the rest of the year was spent waiting to see what would happen to the discredited Plan

Change 78 that foisted 3 dwellings of 3 storeys almost everywhere in the city.

Finally in September Auckland Council voted to reject that plan change and come up with a new

one which they have called Plan Change 120.

However Government insisted that Auckland council still provide zoning capacity for two

million more dwellings in the city.

For some city heritage suburbs this is a worse outcome that Plan Change 78.

Council has been forced to stick with the 2 million homes figure and this unnecessary and

unrealistic number means zoning to enable high rise apartments and townhouses through huge

swathes of the city’s heritage suburbs.

Housing Minister Bishop reluctantly agreed to let Aucklanders have some say on this matter and

the public can now make submissions through until 19 December.

Hearings on it will be heard next year.

Later tonight I will address the submission we will be making on this.

-Devonport remains Single House Zone – we are the lucky suburb mainly because we are not

considered walkable to the CBD and of course Lake Road continues to cut us off at times.

However 258 houses in Devonport will be dropped out of the Special Character Area, 8 areas

mainly around the fringes of the suburb.

We oppose this because we strongly believe that to work, a special character area must remain

intact and be as harmonious as possible.

Devonport is small and has very clear geographical boundaries. There is no need to chip away at

those fringes and allow the possibility of very unsuitable buildings that won’t have to fit in with

the prevailing heritage surroundings.

This may seem a small thing but to us it is totally unnecessary. It will not create any more

housing, because it’s still single house only.

But it could be open slather for some architects to ‘express themselves’ and come up with

housing designs and materials that make a statement.

If the SCA is in place it states clearly that new buildings should “maintain and enhance the built

form, design and architectural values of the buildings and the area” and

“maintain the continuity or coherence of the identified area” and

“be of a compatible form which contributes to the special character values”.

The late heritage architect Jeremy Salmond said new buildings in a heritage area should be well

mannered - that is, not dominate their surroundings. But that is exactly what we may get if

properties are dropped from the SCA.I will talk more on this in the information evening to

follow.

-Looking ahead for the year we also have the changes to the RMA. Minister Chris Bishop is no

fan of Special Character and we can expect a fight to retain this yet again.

Also we continue to share the community’s concerns about the dismal state of the Esplanade

Hotel. Next year we will be ramping up ways to get something done to maintain this highly

protected historic building.

Co Chairpersons - Margot McRae and Trish Deans

12/11/25