Urban design expert calls on Timaru council to stop demolition 'before it's too late'
Friday, 22 September 2023
A Timaru-based urban design expert is calling on the council to put a stop to plans to demolish a row of buildings in the town’s CBD, saying they are too important to be left in the hands of “inexperienced operators”.
“I’m calling on council to reign in these guys and put a stop to this wholesale demolition immediately, before it’s too late,” urban designer, and Timaru Civic Trust chairperson Nigel Gilkison said.
Gilkison was responding to an announcement by Timaru District Holdings Limited this week that it had lodged an application to demolish some of the properties the council controlled organisation owns in the heart of the CBD.
“These properties are too important to leave them in the hands of inexperienced operators. They need to be incorporated as an integral part of the current CBD regeneration plans, so that they can be properly managed and the best development option … can be delivered in an open and inclusive manner.”
On Thursday, the council’s group manager environmental services Paul Cooper confirmed the holdings company had lodged a resource consent application to demolish the buildings on 101, 105 and 107 Stafford St to “establish a public amenity space” on August 15.
“We have [a] request for further information with TDHL before we can continue the process.”
In announcing the plans to demolish some of the buildings on Wednesday, TDHL general manager Frazer Munro said the creation of a green space would support the revitalisation of Stafford St, which included a significant redevelopment of the Theatre Royal and the creation of a Heritage Hub the council is undertaking opposite the sites.
“Moreover, the buildings proposed to be demolished … are not heritage listed, and through the recent District Plan heritage assessments did not have any heritage values identified.
“Really the greenspace option is a win-win for the people of Timaru,” Munro said.
When it purchased the properties in 2018, TDHL said it intended to “enable the sites to be combined, and on-sold to a developer as a single 3700 square metre site”.
Since then, it has called for expressions of interest from developers interested in purchasing the properties. A proposal by Thompson Engineering and Construction to build a hotel on part of the site, was accepted in July 2022. However, TDHL bought the properties back after the company behind the project said it was no longer viable.
On Wednesday, TDHL chairperson Mark Rogers confirmed there were no firm offers “being considered” for the properties.
At a council meeting in June, Munro said a precinct plan for the area identified key features and outcomes the council wanted to see from any development undertaken and proposals for the sites were assessed against that plan.
Gilkison said he had spoken to “multiple commercial operators in the CBD who have approached TDHL with offers to purchase these buildings, and they have all been turned away by TDHL”.
“TDHL … have absolutely no clue how best to develop or market inner city property, so they should not even be attempting to do it. They will stuff it up, as they have done so far, and we’ll all be left carrying the can.”
A 30-year industry veteran who holds a Masters in Urban Design, Gilkison said he was speaking out because he is passionate about making Timaru a better place to live.
He said, given the consenting process for demolition is not notified, anyone opposed to the plan had no official opportunity to comment. The only option was to appeal to the council to put a stop to it, he said.
“Pulling down perfectly usable buildings, which could be adaptively reused for another purpose and leaving the site sitting vacant, makes absolutely no sense.
“Council need to take these properties out of TDHL’s hands and develop up a comprehensive development strategy, which integrates with the emerging CBD masterplan, for the whole of the city centre.”
He estimated it could potentially cost $1 million to remediate the sloping site post demolition, and said landscaping would also be costly.
He questioned the financial common sense of doing the landscaping work, if the property was eventually sold to be built on.
“How much is all that going to cost ratepayers? It could be millions … What a waste of council and ratepayers’ money.”
He said there was also a sustainability argument for keeping the buildings.
“It’s just so wasteful.
“Buildings do not come with a ‘use-by-date’, they are not bananas. They can be adaptively reused, and they could easily last another 100 years or more if they are periodically upgraded and well maintained.
“Yes, it costs money to do that, but it’s so much cheaper and more sustainable than pulling them down just to rebuild them again. As the catch-cry of the re-development sector goes - ‘the greenest building is the one that’s already there’.”
He said he feared the space would become another empty site, with no immediate prospect of development, “just like the Hydro”.
He questioned whether TDHL had seriously considered adaptive reuse options, and said it appeared from their comments they did not know whether they were earthquake prone or not.
On Wednesday, Rogers said the buildings were “likely earthquake prone”.
“If they don’t know what their NBS rating is, then how can they possibly know how much they will cost to refurbish?
“Why did they not assess the NBS rating of these buildings when they purchased these buildings? If they knew what they were doing, they would have done this as part of their due diligence before they bought them.”
The buildings were purchased during the tenure of former Timaru mayor Damon Odey, who was also the chairperson of TDHL at the time.
At the time, Odey said the purchase was intended to stimulate interest in the area.
“I think what we’ve done is something progressive. The holdings company has decided to make some stuff happen. The community has long asked if there is anything we can do to help update this part of south Stafford Street,” Odey said at the time.
The year prior, TDHL purchased the town's former A&P showgrounds, after fears big box development would draw people away from the Timaru CBD, with Odey saying the purchase of the Stafford St buildings was “the other side of the coin”.
Gilkison also spoke at the time of the purchase, saying there should be an “agreed vision” for the area, “and we all should have a say in this”.
He was now questioning the reason TDHL purchased the buildings at all, and
calling on the council to look into the matter.
Citing the way the controversial sale of the Showgrounds site was handled by TDHL, Gilkison said he had no faith in the council to act, and feared they would simply say the matter was one for the holdings company.
“Shouldn’t the council be in control of their own property and shouldn’t they have a say in how it's ultimately developed?
“Certainly, the public should be consulted on what they think the future of their town centre should be.”