Napier businessman Rodney Green has rubbished claims made in an anonymous flyer that a proposed housing development on the site of the Arana Motel in Karamu Road, Hastings, would house "lower socio-economic families" and hurt property values.
Dozens of the flyers were distributed in Mayfair, urging people to oppose the complex
on the grounds that they would be filled with low-income families and will decrease property values.
The letter says the apartments will be sold as high-density housing and the units were aimed at low-income people and young families.
"There is nothing to stop people buying them as investments and renting them out.
"How will that affect your property value and your neighbourhood?" the flyer said.
"There will be 15 apartments - an average of one dwelling per 112 square metres - and the council's normal requirement is 350sq m."
The flyer then asks neighbours to table submissions opposing the development in the hopes that it would stop the development.
The Hastings District Council is in the process of considering the consent application by Alexander Construction Hawke's Bay. Submissions will be heard by the council on March 13.
The development company, owned by Mr Green, is different from the Napier-based Alexander Construction Company. If consent is granted to the construction company, 15 apartments will occupy the site. At present there are 13 motel units and a manager's residential unit on the site.
The resource consent application says three extensions will be built onto the existing motel unit to create the apartments.
A resource consent is needed because the plan does not fit within council regulations for density, access, and minimum site area.
Mr Green said concerns raised in the flyer that low socio-economic families would reside in the the apartments were "absolute rubbish".
He said this was the third such complex his company had built and a huge range of people lived in them - newly divorced people, retired couples and younger people just starting out.
"The accommodation is definitely entry level but that doesn't mean it's lower socio economic or for solo parents," he said.
The cheapest of the apartments was expected to sell for $75,000.
Mr Green said there seemed to be a huge need in Hawke's Bay for this style of accommodation.
He said although the apartments were seen as high density by Hastings District Council standards and resource consent to be notified in Napier notification was not necessary.
