Auckland Council has today confirmed it will proceed with a controversial “flood-detention sink” for Milford and the Wairau Valley, with implications for the future of Takapuna Golf Club.
The area suffered two deaths and the worst damage of any part of the city, during the Auckland Anniversary weekend floods of 2023.
The land for the sink is known as the A.F. Thomas Park and is currently leased by the Takapuna Golf Club. Takapuna is one of 43 golf courses in Auckland, 10 of which are public.
The council has been working with the club to create a design it hopes everyone will be happy with.
Officials reported to the council in April on more than 100 flood-mitigation options, recommending a scheme that would convert half the park to a wetland for general recreation, with the capacity to store “a minimum” of 550 million litres of floodwater. The remainder of the land would be large enough for a nine-hole course.
The golf club and its supporters opposed that plan and presented that April meeting with their own proposal. The council responded by asking officials to consider the golf club option alongside their own plan.
That work is now complete.
“The council has worked closely with Takapuna Golf Course to complete a feasibility assessment of the two proposals,“ the council’s head of sustainable partnerships in the Healthy Waters & Flood Resilience division, Tom Mansell, said today.
“An eight-step technical review ensured both options were evaluated fairly for feasibility, cost-effectiveness as well as addressing environmental considerations.”
Mansell explained to the Herald today that the golf club’s initial proposal, which would have created a large number of smaller stormwater storage ponds throughout the park, was not feasible due to “cost and maintenance requirements”.
One factor was that the series of small ponds would not have had sufficient water flowing through them to prevent them becoming stagnant. “That would make them a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other insect pests,” Mansell said.
The golf club was granted a time extension to provide an alternate option, which it has now done.
“Both the council proposal and the golf course’s revised proposal have similarities in terms of placement and the method of storing stormwater on the site,” said Mansell.
But they are not the same. “The golf club’s plan was for wetland storage that wouldn’t be quite as deep, and it would allow golf to be played over the whole area.
“We’re confident in the single design concept that’s come out of the feasibility assessment and are ready to move this project forward for our communities.”
He confirmed that the single design concept is substantially the same as the council’s original plan.
“Our plan will be able to accommodate a nine-hole course and a driving range, but not an 18-hole course.”
The Herald asked Mansell if he had any comment about the statements of New Zealand professional golfer Ryan Fox, who has advocated to preserve the 18-hole course.
Speaking last month, Fox told the Herald: “The facility provides a great service to the game of golf in New Zealand, allowing numerous recreational golfers – both adults and kids – to get into the game at a very reasonable cost."
Mansell said the issue should not be turned into one of “golf vs community”.
Fox has also told RNZ that Takapuna was a “great course for the whole family” and a place anyone could go, “even if they’ve never played before”.
In Mansell’s view, would a nine-hole course be able to meet that need?
“We’re doing everything we can to enable golf to remain in the park,” he said.
He added there were “other recreational demands. The wetland will have paths for walking and cycling and it could be very widely used.”
The park borders the Eventfinda Stadium, which suffered $4.8 million of damage in the 2023 floods and was out of action for months.
Stadium chief executive Brian Blake welcomed the council decision today. “The stadium is the only venue on the North Shore with indoor courts on a large scale,” he said. “And the Shore is already 10 courts short.”
He added, “We have 1000 kids a day in here training. It adds up to 400,000 users a year.”
The Takapuna Golf Club says it has 80,000 players a year.
The stadium also hosts festivals and other one-off events. “We’ve just had two Indian festivals, Tuatara basketball and a big combat sports event.”
Mansell told the Herald the stadium is just one heavy rain event away from closing altogether. “All it would take is 100mm on the floor.”
Blake agreed. “We’re in the lowest part of the land here, so the floods start with us. It doesn’t matter if it’s a foot or a metre or an inch, we won’t get insurance if the flooding is allowed to continue. And that means we will be no more.”
Over the weekend, the Insurance Council came out in support of the council’s flood mitigation plan.
Chief executive Kris Faafoi said his members received 1000 claims from homes and businesses in the areas around the golf course, after the 2023 floods.
“What we’re asking, as insurers of those areas, is to make sure we can protect families and keep insurance available to those communities.
“We’ve got to make sure that there’s a balanced debate and, as well as the emotion of a golf course and enjoying a golf course, there’s a good hard look at some of the realities that might happen if there’s another [extreme weather] event like that and how we can protect people from the kind of pain they suffered a little over two years ago.”
Debbie Dunstan of the Milford Residents’ Association also welcomed the council decision. Milford, next door to A.F. Thomas Park, has more homes still declared uninhabitable after the 2023 floods than any other suburb in Auckland.
“We’re pleased a decision has been made,” she said. “We didn’t want any more delay. Our priority has always been people, homes and businesses. Anyone who’s seen the images of what happened in 2023 will know how large this problem is.”
The Wairau flood resilience project is part of the council’s Making Space for Water programme, which has allocated $760m to building infrastructure that manages floodwater in temporary reservoirs or detention sinks, usually on parkland.
“It aims to build smarter, more resilient infrastructure to help protect homes, schools, businesses and infrastructure from future flooding while enhancing green spaces for community use,” the council said.
Mansell said maintenance costs for the wetland will not be low. They need to control mosquitoes by keeping the water flowing, and maintain the flood-detention capacity to a high level.
But, he said, flooding is the main natural hazard facing Auckland. “It’s deadly, extreme and likely. This is not work that is optional. It’s disruptive and costly, but we have to do it.”
The Government is co-funding Making Space for Water, in this case by providing 62% of the costs of creating the wetland area.
The officials’ proposal will now proceed to detailed planning, with a view to work starting this year.
The funding covers “flood mitigation” but does not extend to creating new recreation facilities. It will pay for the wetland, with service paths through it that will double as walking/cycling paths.
The future recreational use of the whole park will be a matter for the Kaipātiki Local Board to decide. It could propose a new nine-hole course, children’s play areas, outdoor playing fields or a mix of all of those and other facilities.
The board is expected to consult widely before making a decision next year. Funding will be sought through the council’s 10-year budget update, also scheduled for next year.
Comment from the golf club has been sought.
Simon Wilson is an award-winning senior writer covering politics, the climate crisis, transport, housing, urban design and social issues, with a focus on Auckland. He joined the Herald in 2018.