Growing pains afflict beach resort

By ANNE GIBSON property editor

Just how much development a picturesque Coromandel beach resort can sustain is the subject of a battle between developers and residents.

Many of the residents of Matarangi Beach Estates are trying to stop developers from expanding their retreat, arguing that flooding problems, sewage overload, a seasonal shortage of fresh water and a threat to bird and sea life are all reasons to rethink the peninsula's future.

Raw sewage is discharged into the estuary during peak Christmas occupation, says Colin Plowman, chair of the Matarangi Ratepayers' Association. Because the existing facilities cannot cope at peak periods, the association is concerned about further expansion.

But the Thames Coromandel District Council and the owners of Matarangi Beach Estates disagree, saying the resort can take a lot more development. They are proceeding at a fast clip.

With the Christmas influx of holidaymakers looming and the fact that the balance of the development land has changed hands recently, residents are even more worried about Matarangi's immediate future.

To add to their fears, an eco-sensitive wetland area has been earmarked for subdivision, which could lift the number of sections from 1038 to nearer 2000.

The estuary, home to the endangered dotterel, yields an abundance of flounder, kahawai and shellfish, Plowman says, but all this is threatened by the expansion.

The association, with 250 members, went to the Environment Court last year in a bid to limit building.

Plowman is an Auckland manufacturer who has owned his holiday house for five years.

He is involved in mediation between the association, council and developer to see if they can reach settlement through a consent order, but Plowman is keen to see the issue go to court.

Peter Wishart, forward planning manager for the council, says Matarangi's future is quite clear - it has been earmarked as a "growth cell," along with Coromandel, Thames, Whitianga, Tairua, Pauanui and Whangamata.

"It's part of our development strategy," he says, noting the council's objection to piecemeal development on the Coromandel and its associated infrastructure problems.

Lesley McCormick, the council's area manager for Mercury Bay, says Matarangi's water problems will be solved soon. She is investigating a new $500,000 water treatment plant.

"We haven't identified what methods we'll use, as we're still at a planning stage."

But environmental engineering consultants Montgomery Watson is highly critical of the feasibility of upgrading the town's wastewater treatment and disposal plant.

Expansion could result in "grossly excessive" problems and "extensive surface run-off to the harbour. Both the assessment of capacity of the existing scheme and the proposals for expansion are incorrect because they fail to recognise the key limitation to the design of the scheme," says their report.

Matarangi Beach Estates has sold 919 of the 1038 sections, but fewer than 500 houses have been built, says company manager John Telfer.

This, combined with decades of partial development, has resulted in an eclectic resort, with portions seemingly caught in a time warp. The "baches" range from caravans shoved under the pine trees to award-winning, architecturally designed mansions facing the ocean.

Matarangi has had a string of owners, each leaving a footprint.

The new buyer of part of the peninsula is Greg Wilkinson's Auckland-based Axis Property Group, which has close associations with Eric Watson and his retailing empire, Pacific Retail Group.

Together, they developed the 133-room Sebel Suites on Auckland's waterfront.

Axis is now marketing a series of golf-course duplex units at Matarangi, and is keen to kickstart yet another wave of subdivision.

The resort was conceived by developers Ken Woodhead and Warrick Keddle in 1978. It then passed into the hands of Rothmans, then Magnum/DB.

By 1994, DB Group had sold Matarangi for an undisclosed sum to a group of South Island investors. DB was quitting non-core assets and flicked 39 hotels and taverns about the same time.

The investors - David Smallbone, Howard Paterson, Murray Valentine and Philip Burmester - kicked along Matarangi's development, reporting $8 million worth of sales, or 50 sections, between December 1, 1994 and February 3, 1995.

It was the South Islanders who began the expansion of the nine-hole golf links, designed by Bob Charles.

They also had the lake made, conceiving the plan for the golf course on one side and the duplex units on the other side.

But, like others before them, they sold Matarangi, this time to property developer Mark Hotchin, a business associate of Watson and major shareholder in Pacific Retail Group.

Former All Black Sean Fitzpatrick last year fronted an advertising campaign to sell 90 seaside properties for between $60,000 and $260,000.

Now part of the resort has been sold again. Given the links to Watson, it was hardly surprising to find Luke Carter of Axis revealing the deal this month, although he says it was done "about four months ago."

Exactly what Axis has bought in the latest saga of wheeling and dealing, it is not saying.

This raises a few questions, given that much of the land is subdivided, built on and owned freehold by residents. According to Telfer, Matarangi has 150 permanent residents, many of them builders and tradespeople working on the houses.

He says Axis bought into two parts of Matarangi: the land for the 46 golf course duplex units, which it is now marketing; and a much larger piece of land that Telfer says could be carved up into between 900 and 1000 sections.

This land is south of the main road, between the airfield and Matarangi Drive. Even though it could yield that many titles, Telfer says it will not "because of our commitment to open space here."

But carving up of this untouched piece around the estuary is already well underway.

An application has been lodged with the council to subdivide an initial part of this land into 240 sections, says Telfer.

The launch this month of a big marketing campaign and the appointment of real estate agents Kelland's to move the duplex units are just two Axis-driven steps on the resort.

The three-bedroom freehold units are priced between $189,000 and $239,000.

They will all be built to a uniform design, although buyers have a choice of internal layout.