The Devonport Flagstaff Page 5
April 8, 2022
Heavyweights join fight to preserve Devonport heritage
Taking up the heritage cudgels… (from left) Dave Serjeant, Richard Reid, Margot McRae and Jeremy Salmond An ‘A-team’ of leading Devonport professionals has joined Margot McRae and Devonport Heritage to get the best outcome for the area in the face of potentially massive changes to Auckland Council planning rules The Flagstaff asked each of them why they had stepped forward. Dave Serjeant, an independent planning and resource-management consultant, said he became involved because the proposed council changes would have a major impact on Auckland and would be “very significant for Devonport”. The central village area could be particularly affected by the proposed allowable building heights, and lack of design controls. The government’s housing-supply act prioritised housing “to the detriment of other important values in our urban fabric, like heritage,” Serjeant said. He wanted to ensure planning rules that would be applied in Devonport protected heritage. “Significant changes of zoning are under consideration which need careful scrutiny.” An irony of the current emphasis on freeing up sites for development was that
“Auckland Council was actually way ahead of the game in the provision of new housing supply,” Serjeant said. New housing developments along Lake Rd, and in Belmont, Bayswater and Hauraki were indications of the Auckland Unitary Plan in action. Jeremy Salmond, a heritage architect who has lived and worked in Devonport for 50 years, said he was very concerned about heritage “being eaten away over time… death by a thousand cuts.” Social change led to upgrades and renovations, but the heritage fabric could still be protected. Heritage homes and buildings were not museum pieces, but reflected history over generations with each owner “adding their touches”, Salmond said. Structures around Devonport were effectively social history in a built form, he said. Salmond was concerned Auckland Council was “tightening up” on homes that could have heritage protection by applying an “artificial” baseline of 75 per cent against a number of criteria. This was overly simplistic, and would
exclude some areas of Devonport from protection. Additionally, any freeing up of land in Devonport for greater development without solving a major issue like Lake Rd congestion, and considering other infrastructure issues, was “a failure to plan over time”, Salmond said. Richard Reid, an architect and urban designer whose firm Citymakers aims to provide holistic answers to future planning, said an opportunity now exists “to review the place of heritage in Devonport and across Auckland. “And to crystallise what makes Devonport special and unique... to start with what is important and clarify that, rather than just a reaction to what council might be proposing.” Establishing heritage baselines was crucial when New Zealand cities were giving priority to development. The craft and science of planning were being removed from the system “for expedient gains”. “Its not the kind of city or country I want to practise city-making in,” Reid said.
