Here's a story about something interesting that I have been keeping an eye on over the past few years. It starts with an inner city site, known as 17 Kelly Street, Mt Eden. A site that could best be described as prime estate. Being considered prime real estate has meant this site has been fought over by various parties for many years and like all good battles it has not been without its controversies and victims.
I don't really need to tell you all this because if you go here it tells you all you need to know. But in case you don't here's the long and short of it:
In a previous life this site was home to a dental training school. Before the site was a dental training school it was earmarked as a public reserve (pre 1940s I think) but it never happened.
During it's time as a dental training school in the 1960s and 1970s they used to "throw spare amalgam out the window." As a result the soil, plants, and trees on the site become contaminated.
Fast forward to 2000 when ESRI (a crown institute who became the lucky owners) decide they no longer want the site and begin the process of selling it. A process which becomes the subject of much controversy. Before they can safely sell it they spend about $1 million on decontamination.
ESRI then sell it to a developer (who just happens to be the former CFO of ESRI) with an elaborate plan to develop the site into 22 high-density 'luxury' townhouses. The City Council was thrilled of course, because this area of Mt Eden is zoned for population growth and the development ticks all their boxes. The local residents were not so thrilled because they don't want a high-density development next door, they want a park. The local iwi are also not impressed because they have a Waitangi Tribunal claim related to this area.
Nearly ten years after the debacle first began, several resource consents and angry resident meetings later, in 2008 the developer pulls the plug on the development and the site goes on the market, later becoming subject to a mortgagee sale.
In the meantime, the unused site has been surrounded by a 100m wall. Far too tempting for taggers, the wall is soon covered in graffiti, which the owner paints over with grey paint every few days. The residents become annoyed by the tagging, but even more annoyed by the ugly grey paint. So they arrange 2 mural painting parties, inviting artists to come and help cheer the place up. The owner paints over them in the grey paint. The residents paint more murals, the owner paints over them again. The Council gets involved. It starts to get nasty.
By now you can probably appreciate the history of this site is long, complicated and involves a lot of angry people. Now one year on from the development plans being scrapped, the future of the site is still unclear. The local residents continue to fight for the site to become a park, a decision which the Council is yet to accept. And then just when you thought enough has happened here, one last development has occurred in the past few months that gives you the sense that this story is far from over...
The Garden of Eden Project
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