Fletcher Residential has approval to create 479 housing lots or sections in seven stages on the Manukau Golf Course.
The big new scheme by the Fletcher Building business headed by Ken Lotu-Iiga will see the golfing greens filled with housing and many new streets.
The golf club will move to a new Ardmore course which Fletcher will develop as part of the deal, struck after members voted to sell their big site near the Southern Motorway at Manurewa.
Auckland Council approved consent for the huge new housing estate on land already zoned residential even as a golf course.
Many locals opposed the scheme, worried about losing wide peaceful rural-style views over the greens, increased traffic and pressure on services.
Fletcher is allowed to remove 139 generally protected trees, work within the drip line of 36 trees it is retaining and create about 223,600 cubic metres of earthworks across 47ha.
The company will fill within a flood hazard area.
Traffic problems were ruled out, with the council saying the huge subdivision would have no more than minor adverse effects on the surrounding roading environment.
Only minor adverse effects on the water quality and ecology of the Papakura Stream were cited and the effects on coastal bird roosting sites was considered less than minor, subject to a management plan and mitigation measures including the creation of an esplanade reserve along the coastline and restriction of building work to outside the migrant peak coastal bird season.
Fletcher will re-contour the land and create internal roads, level sections, stormwater wetland devices and re-shape the flood plain, although it must maintain its generally flat profile.
Neighbour Max Byrnes last year expressed fears for the Conifer Grove area when the hundreds of houses rise.
As the owner of a Keywella Drive house overlooking the course, which the club sold for $42 million, he said he was worried about the effects of a growing population on the roads, schools, the extensive native shore bird population and residents' quality of life.
The consents allow Fletcher to create the stages one and two nearest the Southern Motorway, then work towards the other side of its land, by Glenross Drive, before returning to the motorway side to finish stages six and seven nearest the motor-way.
The golf club faced an uncertain future if it stayed on the site, with interest costs and maintenance requirements higher than what it was earning.