Pakiri's developing danger

By GEOFF CUMMING

High on the hill above Leigh, on the east coast north of Auckland, there are contrasting glimpses of what makes New Zealand special.

To the south, Matakana lifestyle blocks and the sandy beaches of Kawau Bay, dotted with holiday homes, unfold. If it is paradise compromised, it's in a low-key, Kiwi bach kind of way. This is the great escape for ordinary Aucklanders and, these days, just an hour's drive from the big smoke.

Over the summit, from a ridge off the main road, the view north is more wild and dramatic. The hillside drops almost vertically 150m to the southern end of Pakiri Beach - 20km of rolling surf, white sand and dunes flanked by forest and farmland. There is barely a trace of civilisation.

Beyond the breakers, the glistening Pacific stretches north to the Hen and Chicken Islands and Whangarei Heads and east to the striking silhouette of Little Barrier Island. On this windy ridge, there's a feeling of being alone with very powerful forces.

It is this view developers Kim and Sue Spencer have won the right to cash in on, ending five years of wrangling and court action which made lawyers rich and cut to the heart of the Resource Management Act.

The Environment Court has issued the final conditions of consent allowing subdivision of the 150ha sheep farm into 14 lifestyle blocks. Fourteen homes will be built near the ridge line, providing sweeping views of the unspoilt coastline.

Locals fear the ruling will open the floodgates to subdivision at Pakiri. At least four more applications to subdivide farms near the pristine beach have since reached the Rodney District Council. But the court believes the conditions it has imposed will limit any "precedent" effect.

The saga began in 1995 when Auckland property developer Ian Gillespie bought the unprofitable Greenwood farm from descendants of the original owners. But the application by Gillespie's company, Arrigato Investments, to create 16 lifestyle blocks was turned down by the Rodney District Council in January 1998.

Arrigato appealed to the Environment Court and during the hearing reached a compromise with Rodney for a 14-lot subdivision with extensive bush planting. In October 1999 the court approved, despite opposition from the Auckland Regional Council, the region's environmental watchdog.

The ARC sought a judicial review in the High Court and won. A frustrated Gillespie threw in the towel - selling up for $7.5 million to the Spencers, who had bought one of the sections and now live on the property.

The Spencers went to the Court of Appeal, confident they could negotiate a solution. A year ago, the court found in their favour and sent the application back to the Environment Court.

The wrangle has added to the clamour from developers against costly and time-consuming delays under the RMA. But it may end up proving more of a test case for the RMA's core premise of sustainable development.

The court has imposed tough conditions to minimise the impact of the Spencers' subdivision and allay concerns that it will hasten Pakiri's transformation into an upmarket beach resort.

Hundreds of thousands of native trees must be planted on the erosion-prone hillside and maintained until the canopy cover reaches 75 per cent.

Kim Spencer says the bush planting, and covenants preventing further subdivision of the 4ha to 20ha lots, will help to thwart more intensive development.

The problem is, it will be years before anyone knows. Officials at the Auckland Regional Council, the region's environmental watchdog which led opposition to Arrigato, remain sceptical that native trees will survive on the wild, exposed hillside.

Whatever the future at Pakiri, the case has caused councils up and down the country to re-examine their rules and policies as they struggle to protect valued landscapes from growing subdivision pressure.

The ruling has encouraged developers to offer bush planting as a way to gain more subdivision lots than they would otherwise be allowed, and comes at a time of unprecedented pressure on the coastline.

Revered by Maori and given special status by both Rodney and the ARC, Pakiri has so far escaped the urban creep transforming beaches to the south into satellite suburbs of Auckland.

Much of the low-lying foreshore land is Maori-owned. Inland is a small settlement and school. But from the water's edge, it's hard to make out more than the odd farmhouse beyond the dunes, marram grass and pohutukawa, against a backdrop of pasture and bushclad hills.

The remote atmosphere, surf and white sand make it a favoured location for television commercials for pain relief and asthma drugs. The movie Savage Honeymoon was filmed here and boxer David Tua has bought land for a training camp.

The regional council lists Pakiri and the nearby Goat Island marine reserve, as "a wild and scenic coastline of regional significance which should be protected" in its regional policy statement, a document which district councils must consider when processing resource consents.

Rodney lists it as one of 10 special character areas in its district plan. The statement describes it as "the longest non-urbanised beach on the east coast of this district and this, coupled with the rural backdrop, engenders a feeling of remoteness".

"We thought our district plan was strong enough to withstand this application but the court said otherwise," says Rodney's district plan committee chairman Grahame Powell.

"We hope to be able to avoid that sort of thing in future."

John Verry, Rodney's disputes resolution manager, says the case has taught councils to be explicit in plans and policies if they wish to exclude development.

The decision made it clear that "just because you've got a pristine natural environment doesn't mean to say you have no development," says Verry. "It's a matter of matching the development to the environment."

Importantly, the court also rejected the ARC's argument that houses were detrimental to the "natural" landscape. "We consider that the intrusion of buildings on a ridge line, even in the coastal environment, is not inherently unattractive."

And while ordinary observers might see a green hillside as suitably rustic, the court saw native bush planting as enhancing the farm landscape.

It said conversion of the bush-covered slopes into pasture more than a century ago had degraded the previous pristine environment, causing erosion and runoff contamination.

Replanting would combat subsidence and provide a stepping stone to establish a bird corridor between the conservation islands of Little Barrier and the Hen and Chickens. This could encourage endangered species to return to the coastal edge and subsequently inland, the court found.

The decision points to further coastal development in Rodney, where the northern motorway extension has increased the clamour for subdivision.

Four more applications at Pakiri are before the council. A bid to subdivide 18ha in Witten Rd into six lots has gone to pre-Environment Court mediation after the council turned it down.

Inland, a farm-park proposal by Whangaripo Forest Ltd promises to protect bush in return for subdivision.

Along the beach towards Te Arai Pt, the council has approved a lifestyle subdivision founded on truffle farming.

The most contentious application is by North Holdings Ltd, which plans a lifestyle subdivision over 450ha on the hill behind the township. It is seeking extra lots in return for preserving bush and doing more planting.

North Holdings' consultant, Greg Davidson, says that, far from destroying Pakiri's character, the "upmarket, international class" development will help to preserve it.

With underground services, its own sewage plant and covenants on the bush, it will attract well-off buyers keen to preserve the rural character, he says. Homes will blend in with the surroundings while council rules restrict lot sizes to a minimum 1ha.

"A developer who was smart enough and determined enough could easily create another Omaha here," says Davidson. "But if we can set a benchmark, that's a hell of a precedent for anyone else coming in and trying to intensify."

Locals on low-lying properties below remain sceptical and are worried about the potential number of houses and possible soil stability and flooding problems.

Davidson says their fears are unfounded. "The bottom line for Pakiri is it's a really special place. If people have a genuine regard for Pakiri and want to see it substantially like it is today, but recognising that progress is inevitable, there are answers and they've been internationally tried and tested."

Spencer makes similar points in favour of the Arrigato subdivision, which is marketed as Dovedale. The architecturally designed homes will blend in with the environment - "no pink elephants" - and building sites are positioned to reduce their visibility from the beach. Buyers will never be able to subdivide and covenants will protect the bush.

Planting and maintaining the trees will cost an estimated $2 million and the developer must lodge a $1.6 million bond with the district council. Buyers will be tied to the bond and take responsibility for bush maintenance. The bond will not be released until the canopy cover reaches 75 per cent.

Spencer says the conditions will not deter buyers.

"We're talking about a fairly green sort of buyer who will be growing native bush for the future.

"These are well-off people who want to be involved in something that's making history."

He rejects charges that the subdivision will have a snowball effect on development along the beach. "It's covenanted forever. This is locking up Pakiri hill."

If the ARC was so concerned about the landscape, it should have bought the farm rather than spending well over $1 million of ratepayers' money in court, he says.

He accuses the ARC of delaying settlement of the conditions of consent even after the Court of Appeal ruling. "We had to go back for three days in May to do something that probably only needed a few hours."

He is disappointed at the size of the bond imposed, on top of the expense of planting and maintaining the bush.

But the ARC is unrepentant, maintaining that its perseverance ensured a better outcome.

"It was a very important decision for us," says chairwoman Gwen Bull.

"You had to look at the impact of those houses on a virtually unspoilt beach. We didn't want to see houses on hilltops in that area."

Bull says the ARC became involved at the invitation of the Rodney District Council, which turned down Ian Gillespie's original application.

ARC officials remain unconvinced the bush planting will succeed in such a rugged environment. If it fails, that could mean an easing of the conditions of consent.

The officials point out that many of the original plantings by Gillespie have died, overwhelmed by kikuyu. Gillespie says that was due to lack of maintenance during the long legal battle.

In court, the ARC's expert witness, Dr Neil Mitchell, stressed the need to get the right planting mix and raised concerns about the time it would take for the bush cover to develop.

Mitchell, an Auckland University botanist, said it could take up to 40 years for the canopy to reach 7m in height.

But the court preferred the evidence of Arrigato's consultant landscape architect, Dennis Scott, for his extensive "on the ground" experience.

Scott is confident a second planting programme next year, with a slightly different mix of species, will succeed.

"The important thing is to get on top of the kikuyu with ongoing maintenance."

Scott has been involved in similar planting programmes for subdivisions on Waiheke Island, at Omaha and in the Bay of Islands.

He sees "enhancement subdivisions" as a way to improve degraded land. "Some of these landscapes should never have been cleared for farming."

There's growing demand for such developments which improve the environment, he says. "It's the enabling process which the RMA talks about up front."

Rodney has since included an "enhancement planting" provision in its district plan, allowing rural subdividers to gain extra residential lots in return for bush planting, at the rate of one lot for every 6ha of trees.

Grahame Powell, its district plan committee chairman, says the council remains determined to preserve the character of Pakiri and rural values elsewhere.

"That's why people come to live here."

Even the ARC concedes that if Arrigato succeeds, the outcome will be positive. But officials say it's a big if.

"It's incredibly windy up there," says Bull. "It's an exposed ridge line. If it works it could be really good, but you have to have the right planting mix and you have to be vigilant to keep the kikuyu at bay.

"Our concern has always been whether it's likely to achieve the level of growth within the timeframes promised."

As for original developer Ian Gillespie, he says he doesn't care if he never sees Pakiri again. He has sold all his property interests in Rodney and says he will not do business again with the ARC.

"They lost the plot ... it got completely out of hand. The development now is essentially the same as three years ago."

"I put a fair bit of my life into that project. I came out of it well enough but not as well as I would have if the thing had been sorted out five years earlier.

"Because of the huge upturn in coastal land, the man who's bought it will do a damned sight better than I did."