The Country
  • The Country home
  • Latest news
  • Audio & podcasts
  • Opinion
  • Dairy farming
  • Sheep & beef farming
  • Rural business
  • Rural technology
  • Rural life
  • Listen on iHeart radio

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • Coast & Country News
  • Opinion
  • Dairy farming
  • Sheep & beef farming
  • Horticulture
  • Animal health
  • Rural business
  • Rural technology
  • Rural life

Media

  • Podcasts
  • Video

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whāngarei
  • Dargaville
  • Auckland
  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Hamilton
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Te Kuiti
  • Taumurunui
  • Taupō
  • Gisborne
  • New Plymouth
  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Whanganui
  • Palmerston North
  • Levin
  • Paraparaumu
  • Masterton
  • Wellington
  • Motueka
  • Nelson
  • Blenheim
  • Westport
  • Reefton
  • Kaikōura
  • Greymouth
  • Hokitika
  • Christchurch
  • Ashburton
  • Timaru
  • Wānaka
  • Oamaru
  • Queenstown
  • Dunedin
  • Gore
  • Invercargill

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / The Country / Rural Property

Villagers battle growing threat of urban sprawl

By by Wayne Thompson
15 May, 2005 09:15 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Zoe Yozin has lived in Swanson for 60 years and wants the village to keep its rural character. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

Zoe Yozin has lived in Swanson for 60 years and wants the village to keep its rural character. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

When Zoe Yozin came to live in the foothills of the Waitakere Ranges as a 21-year-old bride, it was a place of poultry farms, orchards and gardens.

"Everyone grew something to send to the markets in Auckland, even if it was just beans packed in a shoebox, and they loaded
up the carrier's truck," Mrs Yozin recalls.

It was 1945 and her husband, Milan, had planted a small vineyard so that winemaking could eventually boost the income from his fruit trees and market garden.

Mrs Yozin says she has many more neighbours in Swanson these days.

"They come to enjoy living in a rural village. We are one of the few farmers left."

Her husband died 30 years ago and she stayed in the family's 1914 villa, built from local kauri. Her daughter Rosalie runs an organic vineyard and market garden on the old 4ha farm.

The business still uses the shop and packing shed which Milan Yozin built from concrete blocks he moulded himself and sheathed in plaster, like the buildings of his native Dalmatia.

The eye-catching building has another role - as an information centre in a long-running battle against what they fear is a council plan to introduce "mass subdivision" to Swanson.

Rosalie Yozin said residents feared the creep of urban-style housing subdivisions would ruin the village's rural character.

The metropolitan urban limit had protected rural Auckland from urban sprawl. Now 500 residents had signed a petition against any move to push that limit out to include a kiwifruit orchard near the Swanson Railway Station, where commuters travel 25km by train to downtown Auckland. The orchard land, known as Penihana, is owned by developer Neil International.

Rosalie Yozin said a proposed change to the district plan flagged Penihana as an urban growth area, which allowed apartments around train stations.

The Waitakere City Council was trying to clear the way for the Penihana subdivision in a change to its management of city growth policy.

The Yozins said few people knew about the proposal yet they had only until the end of this month to make their views known to the council. The proposal is for a staged growth and Penihana's turn is 10 to 20 years away.

Councillor Penny Hulse, who lives in Swanson, said she regretted that a section of the community mistrusted the council.

"We never said we were covering it in a mass subdivision."

Mediation to produce a Penihana concept development plan had failed. The council would look again at a concept plan in 2011, when it would have a clearer view of Swanson's future.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Rural Property

Premium
The Country

Paved paradise? Top Auckland school builds staff car park on $150m gifted farmland

06 Jun 05:00 PM
Rural Property

‘Exciting for the country’: Why the rural property market is set for spring

15 May 08:30 PM
Premium
Rural Property

'Past the first hurdle' - Fletcher Living on progress at $500m The Hill

11 May 07:00 PM

Why Cambridge is the new home of future-focused design

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Rural Property

Premium
Paved paradise? Top Auckland school builds staff car park on $150m gifted farmland

Paved paradise? Top Auckland school builds staff car park on $150m gifted farmland

06 Jun 05:00 PM

The ASB MAGS Farm is protected by a covenant requiring it be used to teach farming.

‘Exciting for the country’: Why the rural property market is set for spring

‘Exciting for the country’: Why the rural property market is set for spring

15 May 08:30 PM
Premium
'Past the first hurdle' - Fletcher Living on progress at $500m The Hill

'Past the first hurdle' - Fletcher Living on progress at $500m The Hill

11 May 07:00 PM
Premium
Two more Hawke’s Bay farms sold to overseas buyers for forestry

Two more Hawke’s Bay farms sold to overseas buyers for forestry

04 May 06:00 PM
Clean water fuelling Pacific futures
sponsored

Clean water fuelling Pacific futures

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP