Elim Group had resource consent approved from the Dunedin City Council to fell a protected lime tree and demolish a heritage-listed house in 284 Stuart St, also known as the Haynes House.
The council had received a building consent application relating to the property but it had not issued one yet.
Elim Group had applied for consent to build a complex containing about 30 one- or two-bedroom apartments in the property’s place.
The house was built for Dunedin businessman Alex Haynes and his family in 1919 as an interwar English Domestic Revival-style house. It was designed by architect Edmund Anscombe.
Yesterday, scaffolding was seen around the house in preparation for work.
The resource consent application, written by Cubitt Consulting, said the original proposal for the site was set back from the scheduled tree.
However, when advised by a structural engineer and the council’s consultant arborist that the tree would not survive necessary work to fix a failing retaining wall below it, the proposal was redesigned to fill the ‘‘gap’’ caused by the original setback to the tree.
The proposal was now an efficient use of valuable inner-city land, it said.
In relation to residential development, the property was in a zone that encouraged high-density residential accommodation within the inner city.
The development would reduce reliance on private motor vehicles and the new building was of an attractive design that would positively contribute to the area’s streetscape, the application said.
The propertyvalue.co.nz website said the property last sold in October 2019 for $1.1 million.
The application did not specify exactly how many apartments will be in the complex. — Allied Media
