Auckland Council committee to consider giving green light to Chamberlain Park redevelopment

Auckland Council's environment and community committee will consider the proposal. Photo / Jason Oxenham

An Auckland Council committee will tomorrow consider giving the green light to the controversial redevelopment of Chamberlain Park.

Albert-Eden Local Board wants to redevelop the 18-hole golf course and open it to the wider community by reducing the course to nine holes.

Other changes would include building two artificial fields and a park with walking and cycling facilities.

Local board chair Peter Haynes will seek the support of the environment and community committee for the plan at its meeting on Wednesday.

A report to the committee by officials recommends the council push ahead with a detailed business plan for the $29.7 million project.

It accepts that the redevelopment could attract more legal challenges but says these could be minimised by "transparent and robust decision-making".

The report says a preliminary assessment found that population growth in the board area would lead to demands for more sport and recreation facilities. Investment in the park plan would deliver "community benefits comparable to the capital and operational investment required".

The report said many golfers wanted different options, and a proposed driving range and practice area could meet this goal.

Though the local board option had a lower cost-benefit ratio over 30 years than sticking with the status quo, the officials suggested the park's redevelopment had "significant community benefits".

Redevelopments scheduled to start earlier this year were scrapped following a judicial review which challenged the council's resource consent.

Save Chamberlain Park, the group opposed to changes, lodged the review in December after the council granted itself resource consent.

In February, the council said it decided to surrender the consent and began a new consent application process.

Golfing great Sir Bob Charles is among those opposed to the scaling back of the course.
In May last year, Charles sent a message of support to SCP and labelled proposed changes "disturbing".

"It has come to my attention that the Chamberlain Park Golf Course may lose some or most of its 18-hole layout to be used for a facility other than golf," he said.

"This is most disturbing to someone who is endeavouring to grow the great game of golf.

"Participation and membership in golf in New Zealand is falling, as in most of the world, due to three things - cost, time and difficulty …

"We can ill afford to lose Chamberlain Park, one of two public golf courses in a city of over one million people."