Dairy Flat development to offer country life without the chores

By WAYNE THOMPSON

Romantics who dream of a rural lifestyle without the farm chores will be catered for in a development at Dairy Flat, north of Albany.

New rules for countryside living in the proposed Rodney District Plan have opened the gate to a scheme for cluster housing - country style - on a 95ha farm off State Highway 17.

It is a break from the traditional subdivision of farms into 4ha or 2ha blocks, each containing the home of a rural lifestyler.

Location Estates has won council approval for clusters of 63 houses set round a commonly owned 71ha of park-like fields.

The groups of homes will not look like the clusters of two- and three-storey terrace homes 10km south in the Albany Basin, in North Shore City.

Each house will sit on its own section of between 2300 sq m and 4000 sq m.

This will leave 75 per cent of the total property in open space.

Housing density for the project is one site for every 1.5ha of land.

Some recent North Shore developments have one building for every 150 sq m - 100 times greater.

Roy Richardson of Location Estates said it was planned to spend $500,000 planting trees on the 95ha farm so homes would overlook "beautiful land".

Planting maintenance and farming work would be undertaken by a live-in manager, so although residents would own equal shares in the farm and have control over its management, they would have no responsibility for physically farming it.

Income from the farm would be ploughed back into maintenance and beautification of the property.

Mr Richardson said the farm's big barn would become a residents' gathering place, with an open fireplace and interior decor like a Rodd & Gunn Clothing shop.

"The dream is Mum and Dad playing tennis. The kids are grooming horses. One of the mothers is looking after a few kids in between tennis games."

Mr Richardson hopes to start selling sites in a few months.

Prices will range from $280,000 to $300,000.

The project has been welcomed by the president of Rodney Federated Farmers, Dean Blythen.

He said alternatives were needed to the traditional one house on a 4ha block "running a pony, a goat and a crop of blackberry".

This idea could provide for people's aspirations while controlling the carve-up of productive land.

"It lets people enjoy the advantages of rural living without the disadvantages of looking after a lot of land that some are not set up for %and don't have the expertise," said Mr Blythen.

%"It becomes a bind and there are the animal health and pasture-management issues to address.

"Each block owner comes home to find the pet sheep has fallen in a drain and other things that need to be sorted out either after work or in the weekend.

"In winter you leave home in the dark for work and get home when it's dark and if there are problems it's difficult to see them and sometimes get help."

But Mr Blythen said despite such problems, he had found some owners of lifestyle blocks had very productive land and looked after their animals well.

He farms near Warkworth, has helped lifestyle-block owners with animal care and believes they are serious about trying to do things properly.

Rodney's principal planner, Peter Vari, said cluster development was a way to preserve the green belt - the buffer zone of open space between metropolitan Auckland and the Hibiscus Coast.

Rural Rodney had a population of 30,800 in 1996, and the proposed district plan prepares for growth by considering the option of hamlets for a further 23,611 people in 20 years.

By then the regional growth strategy tips the whole district will hold double its present 73,800 population.

Mayor John Law said Rodney could handle 100,000 more people in 50 years but "we don't want more of the North Shore in Rodney".

"Our challenge is to keep the unique character of each place in the district. For example, Leigh is a fishing village and Muriwai is a wilderness-marine park area."

Mr Law favours promoting green belts as a way to achieve this.