Developers flock to Rodney

Ian Farrant is against the development. Picture / Paul Estcourt

The residents of rolling green hills north of Auckland do not want to appear unreasonable, even as they face the prospect of hundreds of new residents arriving next door.

Standing at the top of a shared driveway leading to his 2.5ha lifestyle block at Waimauku, about 35km northwest of Auckland, Ian Farrant asks that a protest sign attached to a powerpole overhead not be included in the Herald's photograph.

The sign reads: "This is NOT Cornerstone country."

Cornerstone Group, the company with plans for 2300 houses on farmland next to Farrant's home and the company behind the Nautilus apartment block that now towers over Orewa, is in the habit of erecting signs over land it wants to develop proclaiming it "Cornerstone Country".

At Puhoi, off SH1 just north of Waiwera, resident Dave Dodsworth is also diplomatic about a 63-unit residential settlement that planners want to build on the village's eastern border.

He believes in the "softly softly" approach rather than placard-waving, and nothing will be done until a survey of what residents think of the proposed new "hamlet" is completed.

Waimauku and Puhoi, less than an hour's drive apart, are at different points of Rodney District. With more than 1400km of coastline, including beaches such as Omaha and Orewa, and a multimillion-dollar motorway extension bringing it ever-closer to Auckland, the region is being targeted by developers.

A huge residential and retail development is underway at Silverdale, with a projected population of 9000 people and "new-generation" giant retail stores.

"Windmill hamlets" is a clustered housing development of 100-plus units in the lifestyle block belt at Wainui, west of Silverdale.

On the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, Rodney District Council is being accused of allowing Gulf Harbour's multimillion-dollar marina and residential development to spiral out of control, with more and more houses squeezed on to smaller sites.

Population growth is driving the boom. The district grew 14.6 per cent between the 1996 census and June last year, and by 2016 another 30,000 people could be living here.

Rodney's projected growth under the Regional Growth Strategy is 168 per cent in the next 50 years, the highest for any of Auckland's seven city and district councils.

If the developers at Puhoi think they know what residents of the historic village want, they are in for a rude shock, says resident and unsuccessful mayoral candidate Larry Mitchell.

"This council is between a rock and a hard place," he says.

"It needs $150 million for infrastructure development - Whangaparaoa alone needs a $60 million sewage treatment plant - but the prudent maximum level of debt is only $100 million."

Puhoi is an oasis of rural tranquillity. Exotic oaks and poplars, planted by settlers who arrived in 1863, are dotted among the flax and cabbage trees.

All this will not be spoiled by Papillon Investments' plan for a "clustered" housing development, says planning consultant Shane Hartley.

"Development has been coming to Rodney for many years but it's coming in droves now and in my experience, you cannot stop it," he says.

Hartley is a former Rodney council planner and one of the architects of the district plan, which will need a change if the Papillon development is to go ahead.

Suggest that a fully-formed, 63-home development slap-bang on Puhoi's southeastern border could be considered incongruous, and Hartley replies that it would be better than the "ad hoc" development which has happened already.

He has a point. Tucked away on the road past the pub is a small enclave of modern, unattractive houses, a subdivision built a few years ago.

In contrast, the Papillon hamlet will blend in with the village's architecture, Hartley says, and will not be a "gated community".

The houses will cover only about 5 per cent of the 69ha site but will be owned in common by residents. The rest will be a $2 million planted "forest" with enough room for a horse-jumping arena and horse riding.

All Puhoi residents will be welcome to use the facilities, he says.

Puhoi farmer Jennie Davison says she will sell up if Papillon gets the green light.

"It's totally out of scale and totally out of context. The number of houses exceeds the number in the village right now."

Bill Marcroft, whose lifestyle property borders Papillon's land, believes Davison's sentiments raise another problem: "If she sells, will her land go to another developer?"

Papillon bought the land about the same time Marcroft moved to Puhoi, just as Cornerstone Group bought the 460ha Renalls farm at Waimauku a few months after Ian Farrant moved to the small West Auckland settlement.

In the immediate Waimauku area, there are about 500 households, he says. So Cornerstone's plans for 2300 new homes came as a shock.

"Everyone expected small blocks. If this goes through you can expect a whole lot of other farmers to sell up."

Another developer plans a shopping centre with carpark and motel complex for Waimauku village. But the new commercial centre is designed to face the main road, SH16, with its back to the existing village.

Farrant says he is not opposed to growth per se but it has to be "strategically planned".

"Would you want to see Albany or Westgate come out to here?" he asks.

"The whole of the western corridor, Huapai-Kumeu-Waimauku, is really at risk. The character of this area is something to be preserved; it's something different."

Former Rodney deputy mayor Christine Rose, now an Auckland Regional councillor, says Cornerstone is unlikely to get the green light at Waimauku. But in its publicity material, the company is upbeat.

Rodney District planner Peter Vari says he is aware of development proposals at Waimauku and Puhoi but nothing formal has been received from Cornerstone and more information is being sought from Papillon.

Rodney councillor Wayne Walker says developers are "pushing the envelope" and tension is escalating.

"Many farms are already in separate titles so you're looking at a landscape that is actually about to be chopped up," he says.

"The council has been doing its best to maintain the look and feel of Rodney but there's no question it's tough. You have to ask yourself, is it sensible to extend the motorway even further? It's not sustainable."