Unrelenting boom threat to Whitianga township

By ANNE BESTON

Construction doesn't stop in Whitianga just because the sun is going down.

In fading twilight on a Monday evening, the mechanical arm of an earthmoving digger rises from behind a bank of soil and gently descends, like a giant, unstoppable robot.

This vast brown paddock stretching as far as the eye can see is stage three of Whitianga's multimillion-dollar Waterways project, the canal-side resort widely regarded as the catalyst for a development frenzy that has gripped the town.

Whitianga epitomises the pace of change on the Coromandel Peninsula. It is almost impossible to imagine just what this seaside holiday village will look like in another decade.

The permanent population is set to almost double by 2020. About 3000 people now call Whitianga home but the summer population soars to around 22,000.

Within three years another 600 apartments will be added to the town's 2400 or so dwellings.

House buyers can take their pick from modest back-from-the-beach apartments to canal-side mansions with a jetty, or maybe a section at the "airpark" development, where you fly in and taxi up to your house.

"Conservation" lifestyle lots dot the hills to the northwest. Below, "Aquasoleil" village is being built, a 50-unit two-storey complex with onsite manager and swimming pool, across the road from Buffalo Beach.

Gazing at the rows of tiny, unprepossessing box-like apartments - each arrived already assembled on the back of a truck - the Thames Coromandel District councillor for Mercury Bay ward, Noel Hewlett, looked puzzled.

"They looked quite beautiful on the plans," he said.

The first 30 apartments sold off the plans in two weeks.

The town's grocer for more than 20 years, Mr Hewlett is a big fan of Whitianga, a "beautiful town with good people".

He is not opposed to development but worries about the pace of change.

"The big issue is, it's just happening so fast, we want some control here," Mr Hewlett said.

Some residents believe that control has been almost entirely lacking.

"Planning over the past four to five years has been abysmal," said Dal Minogue, the Mercury Bay South Ratepayers group spokesman who is running for mayor in this year's election.

He wants a change to the district plan so that almost all building along Whitianga's Esplanade, running south from the wharf along the harbour, will be discretionary - potentially open to public objections.

"If that happens everyone will be happy," he said. "We don't want to recreate Auckland here."

Mr Hewlett's fellow Mercury Bay ward councillor, Sue Edens, said the council had trouble "understanding and keeping up with just how fast this is going".

For example, she said, the Waterways project meant a new bypass around Whitianga's congested main street. Now business people were complaining their takings were down 20 per cent.

Mrs Edens is pushing for a start to a $2 million beautification project to draw more customers to the bypassed end of the street.

Coromandel National MP Sandra Goudie mourns the loss of the town's two camping grounds, one of which is being developed for apartments and hotel complex.

"Where does the family that can't afford a bach go?" she said.

But neither could you shut the place down, Mrs Goudie said. People had to be able to earn a living.

Even mayoral hopeful Sally Christie, regarded as a "greenie" and tipped as front-runner to take over from retiring Mayor Chris Lux, is sympathetic to development, although she opposed the sawmill planned for Whangapoua.

"Coromandel Peninsula is a national treasure in the scheme of things but that doesn't mean we want to see it locked up," she said.

"It's not easy for people sitting on $10 million worth of land and then we say we don't want you to cut this up."

Mr Lux defended his council's record over the past six years but his critics regard him as pro-development.

He pointed out a proposal to subdivide further sections between Whitianga and neighbouring Simpsons Beach was stopped and he had a part in saving beautiful Waikawau Bay at the remote northern tip of the peninsula, now in Department of Conservation hands.

The "death by a thousand cuts" cry of conservationists was a perception only, Mr Lux said, "an emotional thing".

With farmers, developers, conservationists and iwi all fighting to be heard, he said, opinion on the future of the peninsula would always be divided.

Mr Lux sings the praises of the $30 million "Peninsula Project", a flood protection and pest control plan carried out in partnership with the Environment Waikato regional council. Adopted just last month, many wonder why the big plan to protect the natural beauty of the peninsula has taken so long.

"You have to start somewhere," Mr Lux said. "We've had one of the highest rates of growth of any council in the country.

"You will always have your battles over subdivision and development."

Take your pick

Whitianga Waterways: 1500 sections in a canal development, completion 15 to 20 years.

Aquasoleil: 50 waterfront apartments, under construction.

Marina Park: 42 luxury managed apartments overlooking marina, under construction.

Oceans Resort complex: 45-apartment and 29-room "boutique hotel" one block back from Buffalo Beach, under construction.

First Light Suites: 19 luxury apartments, construction about to begin.