Local residents may have noticed the recent listing for auction of 3 Queen St, a small three-bedroom cottage that is being sold by the estate of its late owners. A number of people have contacted the Mt Victoria Residents Association to ask about developing the site and the implications of demolition, so we thought it might be useful to potential purchasers to post some information online.

We understand the cottage pre-dates 1930, which means any proposed demolition will be covered by the current Demolition Rule in the District Plan or the new District Plan Change 72, depending on when the application is lodged with the Council. In both cases the intention of the rules is to prevent the loss of the neighbourhood's character, and so demolition is not a matter of right - a resource consent needs to be sought from the Council.

Under the current Demolition Rule the Mt Victoria Residents Association can be consulted as part of the process, and details of how this works are here. However this will change when District Plan Change 72 comes into effect, but at the time of writing the final details of these changes were still being completed by the Council. In all cases we suggest you contact both the Council planning department and a suitably qualified planning professional (such as an architect) for guidance on how to proceed.

MVRA has the view that the character of Mt Victoria depends greatly on the retention of the current buildings and streetscape. The neighbourhood contains a mix of quite grand and remarkably modest homes, and the clear desire of many residents is that this combination of buildings is retained. This means that we would much prefer homes to be restored, renovated and improved rather than being demolished altogether, as this will enable the character of Mt Victoria to be preserved and the social history contained in the buildings retained.

In effect, this means we are generally opposed to the demolition of buildings solely for convenience. While there are some circumstances where retention of the existing building may not be feasible (this might be a good example), much of the character of the neighbourhood has been lost and replaced with buildings of dubious merit, such as the Roger Walker-designed leaky home below.

We would therefore encourage prospective purchasers to make enquiry with both the Council and suitable professionals before assuming that demolition is the only viable approach for 3 Queen Street.

Kent Duston
Acting President
Mt Victoria Residents Association