KEY POINTS:
In the past 40 years the McIvor siblings of Mangere have held out against the ever-expanding reach of Auckland International Airport.
While neighbours have accepted offers to sell up and move on, John, Maureen and David have instead kept a firm grip on their 5.2 hectare farm adjacent
to the tourist gateway - all the time witnessing pasture around them swallowed for runways, associated airport buildings and blossoming commercial estates.
"In the old days it was all big dairy farms, with just a little airport for little planes," 60-something youngest brother David told the Herald On Sunday. "They've all since been bought up by the airport. We're the last ones."
Now, after many approaches to buy the land which has been in the family's possession for 57 years, the McIvors have finally sold - for an undisclosed sum - a 7300m strip for the creation of a link road from a planned new roundabout south of their property on George Bolt Memorial Drive.
The link road would provide alternative access out of the developing business area at the southern end of Westney Rd and Verissimo Drive, so heavy vehicles do not have to drive past two Muslim schools and the residential area adjacent to the northern part of Westney Rd. Locals have reportedly welcomed the changes. "That community has been quite agitated about all the heavy vehicle movements," said one source.
Tenders for construction of the road closed last week and building may start as early as next week, although it will not be open to traffic until the roundabout on George Bolt Memorial Drive is completed, probably around Christmas.
Despite the sale, David McIvor said it would be business as usual for his elder siblings, who have long lived together on the property and hope to keep working their small farm for a few more years yet.
"They love it there," he said.
Since the airport's relatively humble beginnings back in 1960, when official construction began, expansion out south has been substantial. Auckland International Airport now owns 1500 hectares of freehold land in Mangere. The airport is estimated to generate more than $15 billion a year for the New Zealand economy and directly or indirectly sustain around 240,000 full-time jobs.
Auckland International Airport CEO Don Huse said the western side of the roundabout would go on to the northern part of the airport's landholding and connect into planned property developments. "It's just natural evolution.
"We're looking to develop various property investments which will require access, hence the roundabout. Likewise, as part of that arrangement with the roundabout, there'll be the access up to Westney Rd, which improves the access for the commercial activities which take place on a number of properties up there."
David McIvor said although his family had been quite content to run livestock and crop the property over the past decades, the siblings were reconciled to the prospect of selling up in the future.
"You have to accept that things change. And we're all getting older," he said.
The farm's capital valuation in 2005 was $1.33 million but could reach considerably more. David McIvor said further development in the region in the next few years might force the the family's hand when George Bolt Memorial Drive was updated to a motorway.
