Review for change to old home demolition rules

Heritage architects Salmond Reed will review plans by the Auckland City Council to lift demolition controls on thousands of old homes in many of the city's leafy suburbs.

Both sides in the heritage battle covering the Residential 2 zone of Remuera, Epsom, Parnell, Herne Bay, Mt Albert, St Heliers and Kohimarama have reached a verbal agreement after months of talks overseen by Mayor John Banks.

Under the agreement, Salmond Reed will review most of the pre-1940 homes that a council survey said should be excluded from demolition controls introduced by the previous council.

The lifting of demolition controls on 4128 of the 8112 houses in the zone sparked a public outcry and the intervention of Mr Banks to find a solution.

The survey will also review houses where people have opposed the demolition controls. Protected houses that have attracted positive feedback or no feedback will not be reviewed.

The agreement also includes criteria for assessing buildings proposed for demolition, criteria for assessing new buildings in the zone and criteria for assessing alterations or additions to existing houses.

To read the full NZ Herald article click here

Posted: 2 Dec 2008

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