LAWRENCE GULLERY
Possible land acquisition to secure public access to Ocean Beach has been put on hold while the Hastings District Council determines the outcome of a private plan change for housing development at the beach site.
Yesterday, the council withdrew its application for a road easement through land owned by Puke
Puke Tangiora Estate, which it wanted for public access to a reserve at the beach. Instead, it has agreed upon a three-year lease for the land, so people can continue to access the beach as usual.
Access to Ocean Beach has always been at the discretion of the landowners, who allowed the public to use their road leading to the reserve and the beachfront.
Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule said the council had been trying to solve the access problem for 12 years and it had been in court for the past six years.
He agreed, however, yesterday's decision in the Maori Land Court by Deputy Chief Judge Wilson Isaac that the parties should agree on a lease was the best outcome at this time. "We could put the road through and take the land but we didn't want to do that so we thought we would lease it short term," Mr Yule said.
The private plan change, lodged by Hill Country Developments earlier this year, would have to be dealt with before the council could decide whether it wanted to secure public access to the beach long term.
"It (private plan change) could change where a road is placed, it could come down where the new houses are on top (on hills behind the beach)," Mr Yule said.
"The private plan change will review all of that and provide some certainty to the situation," he said. The council had earlier proposed a road easement through Maori land and to selling the land for $280,000. "That had the support of a majority of Maori (trustees) but was not unanimous," Mr Yule said.
Trustees who disagreed had tried to seek independent values of the land and argued against selling any of land out of the family.
Judge Wilson told the hearing yesterday he could see both parties had been trying to come to an agreement and decided not to award penalties for either party.
Mr Yule said it could be at least 18 months before the private plan change was processed, and then the council had its own plan change and structure plan to handle development at Ocean Beach.
