a three-staged transformation

The transformation of the Milford centre involves three stages:

STAGE ONE:
Retail centre refurbishment. (Completed) - Click here to see Before and After photographs of the Stage One refurbishments

STAGE TWO:
Retail extension and residential addition: Extension of existing retail area and  construction of 15 three-level luxury apartments facing onto Milford and Ihumata Roads, additional rooftop car parking and landscaping.  (Resource consent granted)

STAGE THREE: Residential addition: a maximum of 235 high quality apartments within three defined locationson the existing site area, along with additional rooftop carparking.

• Omana Road South - 16 storeys above street level (NB: The lower level of Omana Road is at the lowest level of the graded site area)

• Omana Road North - a tower with three varying heights of up to 8 storeys above street level

• Milford Road - a tower with four varying heights up to 11 storys above street level

•  Up to seven levels of parking

STAGE THREE:
To enable Stage Three, Milford Centre Limited is seeking a change to the North Shore Section of the Auckland District Plan to allow additional flexibility in the height controls thereby enabling tower buildings within confined areas of the Milford Centre site.  Subsequent resource consent applications are then required so Auckland Council may assess building design and construction details.

Milford Centre Ltd originally lodged a private plan change request with the North Shore City Council in October 2008.  Auckland local government agencies amalgamated in November 2010 and the new Auckland Council decided to re-notify a revised Private Plan Change 34 after the two year time limit for issuing a decision lapsed.

The revised and re-notified plan change seeks the same outcome, but has been updated to reflect other Auckland District Plan and Auckland Regional Policy Statement changes that have occurred since October 2008, namely the highlighted importance of providing for intensive residential activity in identified high density centres and intensive corridors as one means of achieving a compact, sustainable urban form, Auckland-wide. Milford is recognised as being one such centre where intensive residential activity could occur, and the new and revised objectives and policies are proposed to be met by allowing buildings of a significantly higher height than currently provided for, subject to prescribed standards.

Another plan change that has been introduced into the North Shore section of the District Plan requires a comprehensive urban design analysis of buildings such as the towers that are proposed in Milford.  All future development would be subject to urban design panel and resource consent procedures.

Milford Centre Ltd has worked closely with Auckland Council to address publicly raised issues by placing a cap on the proposed number of apartments (235), and introducing rules on apartment sizes – requiring a balance of one, two and three bedroomed units. In addition thorough consideration has been given to the environment, urban design, visual and landscaping, shading, transport, social, acoustic, infrastructure and geotechnical effects of the proposed development.