KEY POINTS:
A group of beach walkers is hailing an Environment Court decision banning a high-rise apartment complex from Papamoa's popular white-sand coast.
But the developer is vowing to push ahead with plans to build the dune-side complex in a redesigned form.
The Sandy Walker group, which claims 2000 members, yesterday said the court's decision not to allow Frasers Papamoa to build three five-storey apartment buildings on the Tauranga suburb's beachfront was a "100 per cent victory for the ordinary people who walk on the sand".
"It's a triumph of protest over big money and determined opponents," spokeswoman Jill Parry said.
She said the decision was of national importance because it set a precedent that would prevent residential zones along the Papamoa and Mt Maunganui beachfronts from becoming like the high-rise mecca of Surfers Paradise in Australia.
Frasers had wanted to build the three buildings as part of a larger development of seven "neighbourhoods" on a 25ha site on Papamoa Beach Rd.
The development would house 2000 people in more than 700 apartments.
Resource consent was granted for five of the neighbourhoods but two, including the beachfront one, were declined on the basis of their height, bulk and location.
Houses on Papamoa Beach regularly fetch millions of dollars and the 25ha site is one of the last large tracts of land zoned for residential development in the area.
The contested beachfront apartments would have exceeded the district plan's nine metres (three-storey) height limit and Tauranga City Council denied consent.
Frasers appealed and a two-week hearing was held in the Environment Court in March.
Despite last week's ruling against its proposal, Frasers said it would continue with plans for the development.
Director Steve Short said "we will make calculated decisions from now on" and the beachfront neighbourhood would be redesigned, with the new plan likely to stay within the council's three-storey guideline.
However, a decision had yet to be made about whether to follow an earlier plan for 70 units or to reduce the number to 45.
Mr Short said the other neighbourhood which was denied consent would also be redesigned to fit within planning guidelines.
He said the company took heart from the fact that, while the court had vetoed its height plans for the two contested neighbourhoods, it had accepted the development's high density.
Frasers had argued that the increased height would allow large areas of open space and extensive planting, and was consistent with Tauranga's long-term SmartGrowth Strategy, which advocates high-density housing to avoid urban sprawl.
But the council said the heights requested were unprecedented for any high-rise in a coastal residential zone.
Frasers bought the 25ha in November 2003 from Nga Potiki hapu, which supports the development.
At the Environment Court hearing, hapu representative Whitiora McLeod said the intensification of the site was a more efficient use of the land than the sprawling one-storey housing developments which characterise Papamoa.
Frasers plans to begin construction on the first of the five neighbourhoods which has been granted consent in February.
