John Hill bitterly foresees the eight-storey apartment block being built right next to his Auckland property as a "slum of the future".
It is a description which contrasts with Legacy Property's own advertising pitch for their Auburn St, Takapuna, complex as "boutique" accommodation.
It will contain 21 units, on a 500 square metre-block that previously held a single-storey office building on Auckland's North Shore.
Yet Legacy Property defends plans for its Alba Apartments as a totally compliant form of high-density accommodation the city needs.
In approving resource consent for Legacy's plans in August 2016, Auckland Council agrees.
But in Hill's eyes, the criteria by which council commissioners approve high density plans is overly subjective, and allows loopholes to avoid notifying the public of developments that will affect them.
"Anybody who can look at the plans and say that is not impacting our property in a negative way will be lying in my book," Hill said.
In total, there were 10 separate aspects of the Legacy apartment block plans that were not permitted under the North Shore District Plan, which applied at the time, and therefore required a resource consent.
Included in these, was approval "to alter" two Pohutukawa trees on the property, provide seven fewer car parks than the minimum required, and set the building just six metres back from neighbouring properties - when the minimum required setback was 10 metres.
Auckland Council independent commissioner Dave Serjeant used his discretionary power to approve the plans in August 2016 on the basis they had "less than minor" adverse effects on the surrounding environment, and therefore did not need to by publicly notified.
Hill begs to differ.
"There is one access that is very narrow and goes onto Auburn St right before the lights. The chaos in the morning getting in and out of there will be unbelievable," he said.
"Even the shading reports that they [the developer] gave to council are incorrect. We lived in there for over 10 years."
Hill says the discretionary phrase "less than minor", which allows non-notified building consents, takes away the public's right to provide feedback on construction they oppose in their neighbourhoods.
"It is a phrase that sounds fairly innocuous but actually gives council an unbelievable amount of power over the ratepayers," Hill said.
"Basically it disposes of every ratepayer right in regard to the consent process."
After finding out about the Legacy Property plans mid-2016, Hill commissioned an independent assessment of them by planning consultant David Wren.
Wren concluded that the Legacy apartments should not have proceeded under a non-notified basis, and had a "raft" of adverse effects on neighbours.
Of these, Wren said the proximity of the apartments to Hill's property would "result in colder and damper living conditions" due to shade, car stackers in the garage would create excessive noise, and, there would be a reduction in privacy from balconies overlooking Hill's backyard.
Auckland Council resource consent manager Ian Dobson said council held "differing views" to Wren's report.
Dobson stressed that changes to North Shore District Plan zoning, to allow high density development in Takapuna, meant the Alba Apartments met the permitted height threshold.
Dobson also said noise impact was given "due consideration", and the southern balconies in question were "orientated in a manner that they do not face directly to the complainant's site".
At the May 2 Devonport-Takapuna Local Board public forum, Hill presented a history of his experience to his local board members.
Their response was sympathetic, and the board resolved to bring Hill's situation up when they next met with the Auckland Council planning department.
"This is not the first time we've had issues over the subjective nature of 'less than minor'," local board chairman Grant Gillon said.
Hill said to board members he believed the fight for his own property was already lost, but the landscape of broader Auckland was now what he worried for.
"I wish I could fill this room with young people actually because it's their future that is a problem," he said.
"I want to see young people have affordable housing, but this is not affordable housing as homes, these are flats, and I believe most of them have been bought by investors."
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