Opinion: Development land in Paraparaumu could see tensions rise

K Gurunathan.

Weekly column by Kāpiti mayor K Gurunathan.

Let me conjure up a description I used, in this column back in 2013, to describe the commercial competition for Kāpiti's retail foot traffic.

I called them the bull elephants. Coastlands, as the old tasker, was the successful home-grown developer operating the well-established, and biggest, retail centre. And you had the newcomers - St Heliers, who owned a chunk of the undeveloped land next to Coastlands, and, further west, the Todd Group who had bought the 130-odd hectare airport block from the previous owner, Noel Robinson.

Council's publicly consulted planning regime, embedded through its District Plan, managed where particular types of developments can take place. St Heliers and Coastlands are within the Paraparaumu Town Centre Zone.

When Sir Noel bought the airport block he initiated Plan Change 73 to enable commercial development. His rationale that a degree of commercial development was needed to support the viability of an airport was accepted by the Environment Court.

But the type and size of such development was restricted to protect the planning primacy of Paraparaumu Town Centre as the district's main retail centre.

The Todd Group tried unsuccessfully to amend Plan Change 73. They revealed a plan for a $1 billion investment estimated to create 5000 jobs related to retail and tourism.

Something about Coastlands. They guard their prominence as the district's retail centre and, unlike others, they have traditionally invested heavily in community projects. Coastlands will likely have no objections if the whole airport land is turned into housing with the new inhabitants all shopping in Coastlands.

So far, the new airport owners have had a consistent message. That the airport is not viable and it would be better for the land to be used for housing.

The emphasis on housing comes at a time when there is an acute affordable housing and social housing crisis. But despite the airport being anchored in inalienable private property rights there is also a deep-seated historical public attachment to the airport.

Then you have the airport users, and their organised backers, who see continued value in the airport catering not only for green aero-technology but also housing and light industrial development. Complicating this further are Waitangi Tribunal claims and a Crown responsibility that is yet to fully play out.

Amongst all these over-lapping tensions is the new urban intensification legislation from government that has suddenly increased the future value of urban land. Coastlands is looking at the potential of six-storey high or more buildings.

The new government legislation and how local authorities navigate through them will change the face of our towns and cities across the country.

It's inevitable that these tensions will overflow into the politics of the coming local government elections. I suspect Coastlands will publicly reveal its development plans on its land.

Given the current publicly consulted Paraparaumu Town Centre Plan is outdated, this is likely to create public interest in reviewing the old plan.

This comes as council has released a major flood hazard study of the Wharemauku Catchment to help stormwater management and the restoration of the stream that flows through Coastlands.

We can also expect the airport owners to finally release their long-awaited development vision for the airport land. And the relaunch of a counter vision from those supporting the continuation of the airport.

This battle for the hearts and minds of the people is likely to see election candidates pushed to take sides. Kāpiti may yet see the likes of the 2019 elections for the Wellington mayoralty where opposing developers were noted as backing certain candidates.

Welcome to the politics of development and the development of Kāpiti's politics.