Seasiders fight urbanisation

By ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE

Residents of the Omokoroa Peninsula on Tauranga Harbour are bucking plans for the urbanisation of their small community.

They do not want their idyllic seaside hideaway turned into yet another sprawling suburb, with development gobbling up the pristine environment.

Several years ago, the Western Bay of Plenty District Council earmarked Omokoroa as a residential growth centre. Waihi Beach, Katikati and Te Puke were also targeted.

The council has since moved to get zoning in place and initiate services for an eventual population of 15,000.

Fewer than 2000 people now live at Omokoroa, many of them retired. At least 10 per cent of the 900 properties are holiday homes.

The Omokoroa Ratepayers' Association, with members from about 150 households, is fighting moves to populate the area intensively and will take its arguments to the Environment Court next month.

Over seven days, the association will appeal against consents already granted to the district council and the regional council, Environment Bay of Plenty, to provide the necessary infrastructure for growth.

"We don't know why they want to throw all those people into this peninsula," ratepayers' chairman Bob Lenihan said.

"It is over the top. They just seem to want to do things too big and we wonder why. We do not really see it as viable.

"Some people have already left because they wanted to get out before they were rated off their land."

Forty years ago, Omokoroa was a tiny beach resort and dairy farming area.

Subdivision started slowly in the 1980s and Mr Lenihan said about 30 new houses were being built a year. Omokoroa had two retirement villages and a handful of shops.

Much of the rural land was in kiwifruit and avocados and most orchardists did not want to be forced to sell out.

"It's a crazy use of excellent quality land. It will spoil the peninsula and affect the economic freedom of orchard owners," Mr Lenihan said.

The ratepayers' association was also concerned that the small peninsula, full of natural springs, was prone to erosion and had a history of slips. It was home to many endemic and migratory seabirds and marsh-dwelling birds.

Part of the legal challenge, and of special concern to the association, is the district council's planned $20 million sewerage scheme. Consent has been granted for a 20 km pipeline to take wastewater from Omokoroa to Tauranga for treatment, passing under or near several coastal estuaries and over the Wairoa River.

Last week, the Ministry of Health gave the provisional go-ahead to a $7.35 million subsidy for the scheme, but the ratepayers say t - as they have done for 15 months - nte a modern, stand-alone membrane bio-filter system would be much better suited to Omokoroa. They argue it would be substantially cheaper and environmentally more sensible.

Omokoroa features as an urban growth area in the just-released draft strategy from SmartGrowth, a group responsible for developing an action plan for managing growth in Tauranga and the Western Bay of Plenty for the next 50 years.

It considers providing additional business land in Omokoroa from 2016.

Mr Lenihan said the legal battle was costing his association around $30,000 and members had to fundraise.

But it was a battle that had to be fought - not just at Omokoroa but all around New Zealand - because the process of council hearings was "a mockery".

Local authorities went through the formalities then carried on with what they wanted to do, he said.

People who owned the land should have the right to decide its use, not have change forced on them.

"The council is meant to be the servant," Mr Lenihan said, "but it has gone the other way round."