The Ruapehu District Council voted to go ahead with the planned housing development on Teitei Drive. Photo / Bevan Conley
The Ruapehu District Council voted to go ahead with the planned housing development on Teitei Drive. Photo / Bevan Conley
A social housing development in Ōhakune is going ahead, despite community backlash.
The green light was given by the Ruapehu District Council yesterday after a council vote.
A Kāinga Ora spokesperson said the development will build 44 new homes, 14 of which will be for workers to rent long-term. Another15 will be affordable homes.
Kāinga Ora said there was a demonstrated need for more public housing in the area.
“In Ruapehu District, around 72 applicants with an urgent housing need are on the Housing Register, including 12 whānau already living in Ōhakune.”
Ōhakune Carrot Park Trust chair and neighbouring landowner Ron Frew said a need for further investigation by the council meant there was a “real danger” this would end in a judicial review.
At yesterday’s meeting, Frew offered to buy the land and donate it to the Ōhakune Carrot Park Trust - of which he is the chair.
“This is a multi-million dollar development that’s in the books, and contracts have already been let for massive expenditure, we’ve somehow morphed from the need for 15 social houses into this.”
He said the Ōhakune Carrot Park was a destination rather than a community park.
“I’ll be straight up, low socioeconomic housing is likely to impact on the carrot park when people come, and there’s already thousands of kids playing there.”
Mayor Weston Kirton said the council needed to get on with the job, and it had already been a two-year process to get to this point.
“You can consult until the cows come home, but you’ll never satisfy all parties,” Kirton said.
Ruapehu Mayor Weston Kirton says the council needs to get on with the job.
He said if the council had passed a motion to delay the decision, it would have procrastinated the end result.
“I think there’s been genuine and appropriate consultation with the original idea and spatial plan,” Kirton said.
He said the extra costs associated with the development would be carried by Kāinga Ora.
“A lot of the issues we’re talking about in terms of detail: traffic, the sizes of houses and locations, are issues that will be dealt with by an independent person.”
Councillor Lyn Neeson said the housing development had become about “keeping government ministers and officials happy”.
“It’s definitely been about a series of moving goalposts, trying to fit a brief, whilst meeting impossible deadlines.
“We’ve been forced to do this in confidence, which meant proper consultation wasn’t possible, and I think we’ve made a mistake and not done the right things by our ratepayers. "
Save Ōhakune spokesman Barry Murphy said there were safety issues for neighbouring residents with the closure of a public walkway to the carrot park.
“A housing project is needed and no one disputes that, but one of our major concerns is during this development that whole area is going to be a building site.
“No one’s against affordable housing or social housing but there’s properties available right now for $140,000 in Ōhakune, so I don’t see how from a greenfield project with no sewer, no water, and no power, how they could build for cheaper than that.”
Eva de Jong is a reporter for the Whanganui Chronicle, covering health stories and general news. She began as a reporter in 2023.
