Earthworks for retirement village in Kerikeri can go ahead

Arvida's general manager development Jonathan Ash and development manager Andre Lipa at the company's site off the end of Hall Rd in Kerikeri. Photo/Peter de Graaf

A company planning the Far North's biggest retirement village has crossed the first hoop by securing resource consents for earthworks and discharge of stormwater to land.

The Northland Regional Council has granted earthwork consents for the construction of access roads, building platforms, culvert and related activities on Hall Rd in Kerikeri.

Aged-care firm Arvida wants to build a $120 million retirement village on 18ha of land at the end of the narrow dead-end road. The village would house about 340 people in 200 villas and apartments plus another 80 in a care facility.

Auckland-based Arvida has promised to widen Hall Rd and install a footpath to allay residents' concerns about traffic safety on their road after it reached an agreement with the Far North District Council in June.

The agreement followed concerns by residents of Hall Rd, which is 5m wide with open drains and no footpaths or verges, that large number of trucks expected during construction would put pedestrians - children especially - in danger.

The resource consent, granted last month, permits Arvida contractors to discharge and divert stormwater, temporarily dam and divert stream flows during culvert construction, and to install and use a culvert within the bed of an unnamed tributary of Wairoa Stream.

Conditions around sediment and erosion controls are also contained in the resource consent.

Arvida is prohibited from discharging contaminants, including dust, which are noxious, dangerous, offensive or objectionable at or beyond the development site.

The rest of the resource consents such as building works will be handled by the FNDC.

The retirement village is expected to be built over seven to 10 years and the construction of the first 28 units is due to start in summer.