22-07-2023, 03:35 PM
It started happening here after the quakes & now it seems everywhere across the country, developers are keen to bowl older houses so they can cram as many tiny dwellings as possible onto the same area.
There's no doubt that we do definitely need more housing thanks to successive idiotic govts who couldn't or wouldn't take a long term view, but it also seems that greed speaks loudly.
https://www.thepress.co.nz/a/nz-news/350...uff_skybox
"It was a snapshot of the city’s past.
A son walked out the front door to go to war and never returned and his grieving father, who would go on to become a prominent city councillor, used the family home to help those with influenza during the 1918 pandemic.
But the large villa at 132 Tancred St in Linwood has recently been unceremoniously flattened in just two days by hulking steel machines not even conceived when it was built around 1910.
It’s the confronting sight residents of a 500m stretch of the street on the north side of Linwood Ave are getting used to, with three large apartment developments and social housing flats taking shape in under 12 months.
Now some residents fear what 60 to 100 more residents could do to the quiet neighbourhood they prized, including Rachael Delahunty, who lives in a renovated villa of a similar age.
“I’m really sad about some of these houses being pulled down,” she says. “It seems to me that [heritage] areas are protected in wealthy parts of town like Fendalton and Merivale but here they are demolished for no reason … they don’t even try to relocate them. They just crush them.”
And the worry for Delahunty is just how many more villas will be taken down and replaced with large apartment complexes. She, like all residents of the street, have been flooded with offers to sell to developers over the past year. They have seemingly been attracted to the street for the same reasons as the current residents - its quietness and safety.
Once white-collar area of the city, the character villas on Tancred St mark a prosperous time on the back of booming farm returns.
Built after the depression of the 1890s and World War I, the homes were constructed with quality materials, according to historian Geoff Rice, and were occupied largely by clerks and office workers.
Rice doesn’t mince his words about the loss of these houses.
“The hasty demolition by greedy developers is absolutely deplorable,” he says. “It shows no respect for the city’s history and no respect for the sense of community.”
There's no doubt that we do definitely need more housing thanks to successive idiotic govts who couldn't or wouldn't take a long term view, but it also seems that greed speaks loudly.
https://www.thepress.co.nz/a/nz-news/350...uff_skybox
"It was a snapshot of the city’s past.
A son walked out the front door to go to war and never returned and his grieving father, who would go on to become a prominent city councillor, used the family home to help those with influenza during the 1918 pandemic.
But the large villa at 132 Tancred St in Linwood has recently been unceremoniously flattened in just two days by hulking steel machines not even conceived when it was built around 1910.
It’s the confronting sight residents of a 500m stretch of the street on the north side of Linwood Ave are getting used to, with three large apartment developments and social housing flats taking shape in under 12 months.
Now some residents fear what 60 to 100 more residents could do to the quiet neighbourhood they prized, including Rachael Delahunty, who lives in a renovated villa of a similar age.
“I’m really sad about some of these houses being pulled down,” she says. “It seems to me that [heritage] areas are protected in wealthy parts of town like Fendalton and Merivale but here they are demolished for no reason … they don’t even try to relocate them. They just crush them.”
And the worry for Delahunty is just how many more villas will be taken down and replaced with large apartment complexes. She, like all residents of the street, have been flooded with offers to sell to developers over the past year. They have seemingly been attracted to the street for the same reasons as the current residents - its quietness and safety.
Once white-collar area of the city, the character villas on Tancred St mark a prosperous time on the back of booming farm returns.
Built after the depression of the 1890s and World War I, the homes were constructed with quality materials, according to historian Geoff Rice, and were occupied largely by clerks and office workers.
Rice doesn’t mince his words about the loss of these houses.
“The hasty demolition by greedy developers is absolutely deplorable,” he says. “It shows no respect for the city’s history and no respect for the sense of community.”
in order to be old & wise, you must first be young & stupid. (I'm still working on that.)