Pakiri road angers residents

Developers battling to subdivide Pakiri Beach against the wishes of local landowners, including boxer David Tua, may have to remove a road along a hillside above the beach.

Rodney District Council said the road - about 800m long - was put in without permission.

Notices have been issued to stop the road being extended.

On Monday the council will consider action, which could include requiring the land to be reinstated and prosecuting under the Resource Management Act for unauthorised land works. The latter carries a maximum fine of $200,000.

Developer Kim Spencer, who with Richard Kroon is trying to sell the subdivision at the southern end of the beach, disagrees the road was done without permission.

"They agreed and now I'm getting the shit kicked out of me," Mr Spencer said.

He denied the road was put in to provide access for beachside sections, one of which had an offer of more than $5 million that was conditional on access. "Not at all. We lost that sale six or eight months ago, so that's crap."

He declined to say why the road was put in.

"I'm surprised you want to put it in the Herald. I'm just such a lovely developer, eh? I've got no comment. It's all just very boring.

"I have something like $150 million worth of projects on the go in New Zealand. I just want to be left alone to do what I'm good at, and Pakiri is just hell so I'd rather [not comment]."

Lloyd Barton, the council's manager of resource management, said Mr Spencer had written to the council about putting gravel on existing tracks but "we don't believe the appropriate consents were given to do the [road] work."

Tua, who has an interest in land neighbouring the subdivision, has added his voice to locals who object to the road, which runs by a 1.3ha reserve block containing an historic Ngati Manuhiri pa site.

Tua said the road came close to his property and he was disappointed the developer didn't inform neighbours or get council consent. "I'm going to do what I can to protect my land."

He is in dispute with his former managers about beneficial ownership of the 51ha block owned in the name of boxing company Tuaman Inc. A hearing is scheduled for next month. Mr Spencer and Mr Kroon last year made an offer to buy the Tua block.

Pakiri is the last beach north of Auckland to be subdivided. Developers have met strong opposition from iwi and other locals.

"We would like to see some enforcement from the council," said Hillary Russell, owner of the historic Dovedale Homestead next to the Spencer development.

"If a developer can get away with this we might as well all pack up and leave. I find it immeasurably depressing."

She said walkways had earlier been put in for which consent was gained retrospectively.

Pakiri beach, 25km east of Warkworth, had been protected from subdivision by the council's district plan, but a series of court cases from 1998 overturned this, allowing Spencer to produce 16 lots on condition he plant tens of thousands of native trees on the erosion-prone land.

Planting in 2002 was a failure, with most of the trees dying.

Barton said extensive planting was done last year but it was too early to predict how successful it might be.

The Environment Court ordered the developers to provide Rodney Council with a $1.6 million cash bond as a guarantee that planting conditions be met.

Mr Spencer was a high-flying dairy farmer who went broke. He was released from bankruptcy in 2000. Mr Kroon is a property developer of long standing. He completed the Chancery project in downtown Auckland begun by Mark Lyon.