Tauranga hapū’s dreams dashed by council decision

Tauranga City Council will sell Smiths Farm on the open market. Photo / John Borren / Sun Media

People living in cars and garages could have had warm new homes, but “dithering” from the council has prevented this from happening, an iwi representative says.

In 2015, Tauranga City Council (TCC) decided it would sell land in Bethlehem known as Smiths Farm and classify it as a Special Housing Area. Mana whenua Ngāi Tamarawaho offered to purchase the land on commercial terms and build an affordable housing development.

Issues around access and infrastructure mean nothing has happened with the land since 2015.

Now the hapū's plan may never be realised, after the council classified disposal of the land as strategic at a meeting last Monday.

This classification removes the need to offer mana whenua first right of refusal. Now the land will be sold on the open market, a process the hapū can take part in. At the meeting, commission chairwoman Anne Tolley said the council’s desire for strategic outcomes for the land drove the classification decision.

”It’s not trying to avoid the RFR [right of first refusal], it’s just part of the process,” she said.

Ngāi Tamarāwaho representative Buddy Mikaere told Local Democracy Reporting he was “very disappointed” with the council’s decision.

Ngāi Tamarāwaho representative Buddy Mikaere is disappointed by the council’s decision. Photo / Sun Media

”Putting it to open tender doesn’t mean that you’ll get affordable housing,” he said. ”[It] just defeats the whole purpose of what we were trying to do, which was to make housing available that ordinary people could afford, including our hapū members.”

He was concerned the hapū and its partners wouldn’t be able to compete on the open market.

”We’ll get smashed now. We don’t have the facility to keep going up and up with the money.”

Mikaere said the plan submitted to the council included a mix of housing types and the creation of reserves, with the goal of building around 300 homes.

The hapū were “ready to go” seven years ago, but “endless dithering” from past councils meant nothing had happened, he said.

”It’s even worse now; we have people living in cars and sheds, and garages.”

TCC general manager for strategy, growth and governance, Christine Jones, said the timing of the delivery of housing on the site had been affected by planning processes and the need to put in place transport connections, water and wastewater infrastructure and energy supply.

”All this infrastructure is contracted to be put in place in association with the Takitimu North Link project, as part of that transport corridor physically adjoins the Smiths Farm site.”

Construction of the Takitimu North Link began last year. It was originally set to begin in 2019, but was cancelled. Stage One was reinstated in 2020, and the expected completion date is 2026.

During the meeting, Tolley said the aims the council had for the land were “not too far different” from the aims of Ngāi Tamarāwaho.

”I’m sure that the relationship will continue in a constructive and positive manner in the future, with a slight disagreement over this accepted. They’re disappointed.”

Mikaere said the disagreement was “not so much slight”.

”This is the first time that we’ve actually asked for something exclusively for ourselves. We wanted part of this development to address the housing needs of our hapū.”

Ngāi Tamarāwaho lost land in the confiscations in the 1860s, and although a lot of it was returned, around 50,000 acres of the hapū's land was retained by the Crown, Mikaere said.

The majority of Tauranga was built on this land, meaning Ngāi Tamarāwaho ended up “paying the price” for the confiscations, he said.

”We’ve been short of land here since.”

The hapū had also worked with the council for the benefit of the community in many instances, including jointly owning the land the civic precinct in Tauranga’s CBD would be built on, Mikaere said.

Jones said as part of the classification decision, the council engaged with mana whenua, including seeking information on cultural matters relating to the land.

Commission chairwoman Anne Tolley.

”There was agreement that the land was suitable for housing. This engagement was in accordance with the Property Acquisitions and Disposal Policy, which sets out how council will connect with mana whenua when land is determined as surplus.

”Given the critical current shortage of housing supply in the city, particularly affordable housing, Council has decided that the land should be used to achieve specific strategic housing outcomes.”

The strategic objectives for the disposal of the land were to deliver a mix of affordable and market-rate medium-density housing, a mix of housing types and a range of housing tenure and ownership arrangements, Jones said.

They were also to maximise the financial return from the market to enable reinvestment into affordable housing outcomes, she said.

”Council considered, but did not agree to, the request from the hapū for direct negotiation to purchase the land.

“In early 2023, we expect to seek expressions of interest on this land, and all parties (including mana whenua) are welcome to take part in this process.”

- Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.