Plan for 25 house sites above New Chums/Wainuiototo goes to High Court

Foreshore of stunning beach on the Coromandel Peninsula. Photo / Alan Gibson

A plan for 25 house sites on part of a 375ha block above a world-renowned Coromandel beach is likely heading back to the Environment Court for a final ruling following a High Court hearing this week.

An appeal against the plan was heard before Justice Rebecca Edwards of the High Court at Auckland on Monday and Tuesday with Whangapoua Beach Ratepayers going up against Thames Coromandel District Council and others over the housing plan at New Chums/Wainuiototo.

This week’s appeal challenged a 2019 interim Environment Court decision which said Northern Land, directed by John Darby and Jim Castiglione, owns about two-thirds of the 375ha which is in eight titles. Galt Nominees - which the Companies Office shows is directed by George Kerr - and Ross and Deidre Mear were also cited in that decision, owns the rest of the land in three titles.

The Te Pungapunga Station Structure Plan to allow for the sites is being advanced jointly by the owners so that places can be built that mostly won’t be able to be seen from the golden beach below. The beach, accessible only by walking across a headland from nearby Whangapoua, has been ranked among the most beautiful in the world and cited for its beauty by New York magazine.

In 2019, the case was heard by the Environment Court which issued an interim decision that was then appealed to the High Court, which heard that this week.

When the reserved decision from this week’s High Court hearing is released, the matter is expected to return to the Environment Court for a final ruling.

Beach at New Chums in Coromandel

Two parties filed appeals in the High Court against the Environment Court decision: Whangapoua Beach Community Association and Preserve New Chums for Everyone Inc.

Those appeals seek far less intense development of the land.

Gary Taylor, a trustee of the New Zealand Coastal Trust which bought a 30ha northern headland from the BNZ in 2022 with public support, was represented at this week’s hearing by barrister Sally Gepp.

“Our coastal trust joined that proceeding because we have an interest in it. Our concern is especially with one house site, number 21, which will be visible from the beach.” Taylor said some people wrongly called the beach New Chum but that it had an S “because there was more than one chum”.

The November 2019 Environment Court ruling said the main issues were the number and location of building platforms in the proposed structure plan area and the plan provisions, including the rules for subdivision and development.

These issues involve assessments of the landscape and the natural character of the area, its relationship with the beach, coastal environment and other neighbouring areas, the cultural heritage of the area and the effects of human activity on those things.

Plans for some of the 25 sites above New Chums/Wainuiototo. Photo / Environment Court interim decision, 2019

Preserve New Chum for Everyone Inc and the Whangapoua Beach Ratepayers’ Association oppose the scale of the structure plan and the extent of development that it would enable.

The land has been part of a farming property known for some time as Te Pungapunga Station, taking its name from the river that runs along its southern boundary down to the estuary behind Whangapoua.

Its road access is from Te Punga Rd with the entrance about 1km west of Whangapoua. It includes New Chums Beach which the Environment Court noted was said to be the last sandy beach on the Coromandel Peninsula that has not had its hinterland developed for residential purposes.

The land is hilly, with a steep escarpment immediately behind New Chums Beach rising between 40m and 90m high. This escarpment and the northern and southern parts of the New Chums catchment are covered in mostly native bush, with the central area of the catchment covered in a mix of bush, overgrown pasture and weeds.

The land in the Pungapunga catchment is a similar mixture and is where the farm buildings, a homestead and three other houses are located, that court said.

Three of 11 titles to the land within the structure plan area were larger than 40 ha: one lot adjacent to the beach comprised over 62ha, another landward and to the north comprised 101ha and a third to the south comprised more than 105ha, according to the decision from Environment Court chief judge David Kirkpatrick, presiding with two others.

Northern Land’s proposal was to locate 14 house sites in the Pungapunga catchment and along the esplanade and 11 house sites in the New Chums catchment.

House sites one to five already existed, due to a consent order from the Environment Court in 2006, with titles issued in 2018.

The further house sites were located on areas of current or former pasture, generally avoiding areas of existing and regenerating bush.

There were no house sites on any of the proposed conservation areas, including the escarpment above the beach or on the flat land by the Wainuiototo Stream, or on the land immediately above Motuto Point, the Environment Court interim decision noted.

* Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 23 years, having won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.