Private land in Waitakere foothills stays part of bill's area

The farms, orchards and lifestyle blocks of the Waitakere Ranges foothills are to remain in the area proposed for development controls under the draft Waitakere Ranges Heritage Bill.

A move to pluck the foothills out of any compulsory legislation to protect the ranges was staunchly repelled when the Waitakere City Council met yesterday.

But the council - shaken by a 1000-signature strong anti-legislation petition - decided to offer angry landowners a peace offering.

It called for a report on ways to support the economic development and rural character of the foothills and give rating relief.

Having fixed the boundary of the area to be protected, the council now faces a vote on May 24 on whether to join the Auckland Regional Council in supporting the draft bill.

The area to be protected includes 17,000ha of indigenous forest and coastal parkland owned by the Crown and ARC, including Auckland's water-supply catchment.

But private land holdings amount to 8400ha, counting the foothills and the bushy residential areas of Titirangi and Laingholm.

Councillor Vanessa Neeson yesterday moved that any legislation should relate to parkland and areas of private land voluntarily included.

"You can't have one size fits all," she said. "Parkland and landowners are entirely different things."

She said the council was accused of breaching the trust of land owners, eroding people's property rights and riding roughshod over the people.

To applause from bill opponents, Mrs Neeson said its aims of dealing with the cumulative effects of subdivisions could be achieved through the present district plan rules.

But councillors Penny Hulse and Ross Clow said that as residents they were comfortable with the foothills being covered by legislation.

Mrs Hulse said Swanson was once the city's dumping ground and the foothills could not be allowed to be a place of continual change.

She wanted support for foothills landowners' economic development.

"People are struggling and the land has fallen to rack and ruin and it's the council's job to help them."

Mr Clow said he could not support Mrs Neeson because "this legislation is about the foothills. That's what's being damaged."

Officers reported that the Government and the ARC would not support a bill that did not apply to the foothills and this would kill the bill.

Mayor Bob Harvey received a petition opposing laws as a means to control land use in the rural areas.

Alan Wagstaff, of the Structure Plan Advocates Network (Spam), said people brought their properties knowing they were regulated under the Resource Management Act.

"The legislation you propose adds more stringent controls and thus discriminates unfairly against us", he said. "We wish to be treated fairly - that is, in the same way as all other citizens."