$26 Million to be spent on Takapuna Grammar restoration

The Ministry of Education have announced that they are to spend $26 million on Takapuna Grammar School's landmark Main Block. Main Block was earthquake strengthened in 1994, however this work was faulty and lead to the building becoming "leaky" and during recent scoping it has been found that the whole building will now need major restoration to avoid demolition. The cost is enormous, but we agree with local MP Maggie Barry -Minister of Arts Culture and Heritage, that it is "absolutely worth it"... " to lose it would be unthinkable" . The Main Block is a local landmark, scheduled as a Heritage Building in the Unitary Plan. The project includes building two new art rooms and is scheduled to be complete in 2017 which will be the school's 90th birthday.

The case of the disappearing suburb....the re-naming of Stanley Bay

This is a guest post from one of our members on the strange case of the re-naming of Stanley Bay to Stanley Point. Jeremy has been advocating for the name change to be reversed and is asking for local support. See the 2002 Wise's map image below for the traditional suburb names and locations.

When I moved back to Stanley Bay last year, I was surprised to find its name had been changed to Stanley Point. I believed it had been a simple error that somebody had made due to lack of local knowledge. My enquiries found that in 2007 the North Shore City council submitted a list of suburbs to be gazetted by the New Zealand Geographic Board. The name of the suburb of Stanley Bay was changed to Stanley Point. This was done despite the common and historical use of the name Stanley Bay for the suburb since at least the 1900’s, the collection of census data by Statistic New Zealand for Stanley Bay, and surprisingly against the recommendation of the Devonport Local Board that the name remain Stanley Bay.

A Brief History of the Area

Stanley Point was named after Captain Owen Stanley of the HMS Britomart who surveyed the Waitemata Harbour in 1841.

Historically, the locality referred to as Stanley Point consists of one main street, Stanley Point Road, running from the bay up to the point with two small streets, First Avenue and Second Avenue, running off it.

Stanley Bay was originally referred to as Brick Bay. A brick works was sited there from 1844 to the 1850s Calliope Road was constructed in the 1850s and after the establishment of the dry dock and the naval base the area was subdivided and settled. In 1899, the Harbour Board recognised the change of name from Brick Bay to Stanley Bay and in 1900 a ferry service to a new Stanley Bay Wharf started. By 1909 the population had grown and Stanley Bay School was established in Russell Street. In the 1920s, the Stanley Bay Improvement Association formed to reclaim part of Ngataringa Bay to form Stanley Bay Park, the recreation grounds house the Ngataringa Tennis Club (1927) and the former Girl Guides den.

The Stanley Bay area has eleven streets running off or parallel to Calliope Road, plus the Navy Base and accommodations, the Naval Hospital Buildings and the dry dock and Naval dockyards.

The Census defines Stanley Bay as the area west of Shoal Bay Road with a population of 2187 residents and, due to the dockyards, a working population of over 2000.

Documentation of the Name Change

The North Shore City Council report on the second (and final) consultation process records the following comments on the name change from Stanley Bay to Stanley Point (Advice of Action page 6, attached):

Devonport Community Board

Comments

·       Stanley Point suburb area marked on the second draft map is to be divided to Stanley Bay and Stanley Point suburbs.

Amendments

·       After further consultation with Councillor Dianne Hale and Andrew Eaglen, it was agreed that the area indicated for Stanley Bay was too small. Therefore Stanley Point suburb names remains as it is and Roslyn Terrace is the eastern boundary of the suburb.

·        

I believe that it was in these comments and this decision that a mistake was made, because the old Stanley Bay area was considerably larger than the Stanley Point area which, as mentioned, comprised only three streets. However, a North Shore City Council-erected map at the Devonport Wharf entrance (still extant) showing the localities of Devonport has the names Stanley Bay and Stanley Point around the wrong way. It shows Stanley Bay as sitting to the west of Stanley Point and suggests that it is Stanley Bay which has only three streets. The map is wrong, but it may explain the decision that was made

As the evidence suggests that the name change from Stanley Bay to Stanley Point may have been based on an error, I believe it warrants being revisited and reconsidered.

The N Z Geographic Board advises that the name can be changed back to Stanley Bay with support from the community and the Devonport Takapuna local board.

please e-mail your support to us and we will forward your details to Jeremy

Additional height controls for Devonport village centre

Devonport Heritage made a submission to the Unitary Plan hearing panel today regarding Additional Height Controls which have been proposed for the Devonport main street. Margot MacRae represented us, read the submission below:

Submission by Devonport Heritage on Topic 078 30/10/15

1. Our organisation has called for Devonport’s commercial centre to be removed from

the Town Centre zone.

The principle reason for this is that the underlying height control of 12.5 metres is

inappropriate to the historic village centre of Devonport.

We have submitted that the business centre be scheduled as an historic place and we are

backed up by Heritage New Zealand.

2. Devonport is unlike the other areas zoned as Town Centres.

If you go across to Devonport this weekend you’ll find two Clydesdale horses pulling a

12- seater cart around the main streets. It’s a hugely popular visitor attraction.

It holds up the traffic but nobody toots or yells at it. It’s just part of the life there and has

been going for 23 years.

Can you imagine this in Parnell or Takapuna, Grey Lynn or any other Town Centres?

3. A height limit of 12.5 for the main Devonport centre will invite intensive

development which will put all that makes Devonport special, at risk.

The principle objective of the zoning is – that the scale and intensity of town centres is

increased .

This is entirely wrong for Devonport’s centre which is widely recognised as a highly

intact, authentic heritage area.

• The western side of the Victoria Road looks today largely as it did in the 1880’s.

• Heritage NZ is scheduling the Victoria Road as an Historic Area.

• There are 21 scheduled heritage buildings in the lower Victoria Road.

4. Yet the Town Centre zoning with its 12/5 metre height limit carries with it the seeds

of destruction of Devonport’s low key heritage ambience.

The heritage buildings could be increased by two storeys and the non heritage sites will

be built to four storeys and this will diminish and overwhelm the historic quality of the

village. It will be death by a thousand cuts until the heritage becomes a sort of window

dressing. At present it has an authenticity and much of this is because of the scale of the

buildings.

5. This height limit also clashes with the Height Sensitive Area for volcanic cones as

Victoria Road is entirely covered by the Mount Victoria HSA which is 8 metres.

It seems absurd to have two such contradictory zoning height controls.

6. Some Devonport commercial property owners support the 12.5 height.

The Devonport Business Association and one local property trust have submitted against

the HSA for Devonport as this will interfere with their proposals for increasing building

heights.

Their argument is that building to four storeys is the only way of growing the economic

viability of the centre. They say without this the village will die.

7. However when the Association’s submission to the panel was publicized in the local

paper the Flagstaff in July, it created a furore in Devonport. (see attached articles).

The local business owners were outraged they had not even been informed of the

submission made on their behalf and were very much opposed to it.

They argue that the main reason people come to visit Devonport is because it is a

beautiful seaside heritage village.

They recognise that increased height limits and adding storeys to heritage buildings

would put their businesses at risk by destroying the very attractions people come here to

see.

8. The outrage from the business community became so strong that the owner of the

Bookmark bookshop carried out a survey of the local businesses.

This showed that two thirds of businesses did not support the Business Association’s

submission to Paup.

Many were in fact outraged that the submission had been made without proper

consultation with them.

Even the Flagstaff in its editorial called for the DBA to withdraw its submission on

heights.

So this is a hot topic in Devonport and rightly so.

9. Not only business owners but residents too love and value the low-key heritage nature

of the commercial area. It is not like other places in Auckland and it should not be classed

as a Town Centre which comes with an open invitation to build 3 to 4 storey buildings.

This is not appropriate for Devonport.

10. I remember when the Super City was being set-up there was a lot of reassuring

statements made that the new city and the Unitary Plan would recognise and value the

unique areas of the city.

We are asking you to honour those promises and give Devonport the recognition it

deserves and remove its zoning as a town centre.

Auckland Heritage protection slashed in Unitary Plan proposal

The New Zealand Herald has previewed proposed changes to heritage protection across Auckland. This is in response to the cautionary proposal stopping demolition of pre-1944 buildings until council had done survey work to identify whether any historic heritage had been ommitted from the heritage schedules. We are not able to view the maps as they are embargoed until 30 October, at which point we have a brief period to make further submissions.  However we are reasonably confident that through lobbying over 20 years much of our most treasured built heritage is either scheduled or subject to special zoning requirements that give some protections.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/property/news/article.cfm?c_id=8&objectid=11531215

Masonic development.

In August this year a number of members were in touch with us concerned over the level of demolition underway at the 1866 Masonic Tavern. We contacted Auckland Council with a list of questions regarding this and were assured all was in order with the consent. Recently the Flagstaff has published an article with photos showing the extent of demolition -http://issuu.com/devonportflagstaffnewspaper/docs/october2devonportflagstaff

http://issuu.com/devonportflagstaffnewspaper/docs/october2devonportflagstaff

We requested updates from Council, including a follow up thisweek via Cr. Chris Darby and have the following update this afternoon  "Council Compliance Officers met with the applicants Conservation Architect at the site on 2nd October.  They confirmed that the works being undertaken were in general accordance with the approved consent." Hmm "general accordance"??. Make of that what you will...

Heritage houses and buildings -Are they worth saving?

The New Zealand Herald has a full two page spread in today's paper, timed to co-incide with the Auckland Heritage Festival

"They are buildings and houses which help tell the story of Auckland - but how many will survive a planning rulebook designed to squeeze more people in?"

 

Read the rest of the article here

Auckland's heritage housing in jeopardy

The Herald continues it's excellent articles on the possible outcomes the Unitary Plan will have on our heritage housing. Devonport Heritage has been strongly advocating on this subject appearing at numerous plan hearings. This continues work we have been doing for over 20 years to ensure our area's character is not diluted.

read the article here-

new tree regulations - check before you chop

Good information on what you need to know about trees on your property. Please notethe article  is is incorrect when it quotes that you weren't previously allowed to even prune a protected tree. This work was allowed with a resource consent, which was free from Council fees and allowed for up to 20% pruning over a two year period.

http://northshoretimes.realviewdigital.com/?email-analytics=North%20Shore%20Times#folio=1

The Show Goes On- buy tickets now!

Under wraps and On film

Check out the NZ Herald's feature on our upcoming film follow up from our first feature in 2013. Margot is hard at work capturing this fantastic heritage story

Auckland Heritage Festival

The 2015 Auckland Heritage Festival is running for 16 days from September 26 - October 11.

The festival features more than 180 events across the region - download the programme now at http://www.heritagefestival.co.nz. There are lots of local events around Devonport and the Shore- check out the Devonport Library, Esplanade Hotel, Devonport Museum, Depot Artspace and more.

Background to the height debate - DBA and Devonport Heritage views

In mid 2013  David Barton from the DBA approached Devonport Heritage to talk about the Unitary Plan and the possibility of the two groups making a joint submission to the hearings.

Several things were discussed at these informal chats. Allowing increased heights and building up to 4 storeys was one such subject.

Devonport Heritage said we could not support increasing the height limits  because we believed this would harm the heritage ambience of Victoria Road and the business district.

However we did agree for the two groups to hold an evening in spring 2013 for invited people where both groups would do a power point presentation on our vision for the Devonport business area. 'But this was stopped in its tracks when shortly before the meeting  Devonport Heritage was told there was not to be a joint presentation. So our views were never heard

We have been very busy doing submissions on several topics for the Untiary Plan hearings and we did not become aware of the scope of the DBA submissions until just before the hearings on Viewshafts and Height Sensitive areas and also on Special/Historic Character and Pre-1944 overlays in June. Negotiating your way through the Unitary Plan website is extremely difficult and the DBA or the BID committee should have helped members and the community by posting their submission on the DBA website or emailing it to members.

This is what most organisations do in order to keep their members informed of their actions.

The DBA and the BID did not do this, which has resulted in member businesses only finding out about the submission made on their behalf when they saw it in the Flagstaff.This is either a terrible oversight or a deliberate attempt to keep the submission under the radar.

Whatever the reason, the DBA clearly does not have the mandate from its members for a submission that calls for the Volcanic cones height sensitive area to be removed from the Devonport business district so that buildings of 12.5 metres can be built as of right.

This submission was not circulated to business members nor to the residents of Devonport and clearly is not supported by most locals.

In view of such strong opposition the DBA should withdraw its submission to the Unitary Plan.

Film on the first steps in restoring the Historic St James Theatre- book now!

A not to be missed event in this year's Auckland Heritage Week is the premiere of a documentary on the St James Theatre restoration, produced by Margot McRae.
The 50 minute film charts the past year in the life of the much loved historic 1928 theatre after its sale in 2014.
It follows the first steps of the new owner, his heritage advisers and craftspeople as they come to grips with the work needed to restore and reopen the theatre.
Premiering at the St James itself, the film showcases stories from the theatre's past and its present and celebrates the beauty of a theatre which remained controversially closed for seven years.
Get an inside look at the early restoration stages of this treasured historic theatre as it comes to life after years of neglect.

9 October 6pm
10 October 3pm
11 October 3pm
Tickets $12.   Bookings essential at    mmcrae@xtra.co.nz

more info on the Heritage Festival is available at www.heritagefestival.co.nz

Margot is also continuing to film the progress on the historic Flagstaff House at 33 Mays Street. This featured in our 2013 heritage night called A Tale of Two Houses.
We hope to bring the next instalment in this restoration of this once grand home in 2016.

Mangere's special heritage at risk from Special Housing Area

Ihumatao,  is a green open space near the Manukau Harbour at Mangere with unique historical, cultural, spiritual, social and environmental heritage values.  A Special Housing Area has been planned in its vicinity.

Save Our Unique Landscape campaign - SOUL are campaigning to remove the Special Housing Area designation from this area. Visit their website for more information or to sign their petition at http://www.soulstopsha.org/ and attending the Auckland Council Governing Body meeting at the Auckland Town Hall on Thursday 27 August.   

City risks fake label unless it protects heritage- NZ Herald OpEd

Read Dr Elizabeth Aitken-Rose's op-ed on Auckland's heritage in todays NZHerald. Elizabeth is head of the University of Auckland's School of Architecture and Planning.