Work begins on Wanganui subdivision

Wanganui-based Reuters Homes is starting work on a 35-section St John's Hill subdivision, and 17 adjoining townhouses for Kowhainui Home.
Owner Bernard Reuters said people already had options on more than a third of the house and land packages and more than half of the townhouses.
The subdivision is on about 2.4ha that was once the home of Wanganui's most famous artist, Edith Collier. It's to be called Ringley Estate after the former homestead, and a new road will join it to Virginia Rd.
It was made possible by a land swap with Kowhainui, which is on its eastern boundary. Residents will be able to use the services of the rest home's medical staff and meals on wheels.
The subdivision also bounds Hospice Wanganui and backs onto houses reached from Edmonds Dr.
Mr Reuters said he had spent nearly 30 years doing similar developments in Wanganui and Taupo. Ringley Estate was the second subdivision he had made that needed its own road.
Residents would have a licence to occupy the new Kowhainui townhouses rather than owning them. They are to be two-bedroom units with single garages.
The land going with the 35-house packages varies from 400sq m to 800sq m and customers will be able to choose their own house designs.
There's already a nursery set up on site to prepare large trees for planting and Mr Reuters said the new road would be tree-lined and the subdivision landscaped.
In the meantime, the old trees and Ringley garden are being bulldozed and the hollows between rises filled in.
Mr Reuters has submitted possible names for the new road to Wanganui District Council. Collier has been rejected, because there is already a Collier Pl off Parkes Ave. His next suggestions are Edith Collier St, Keed Drive or Reuters Way "because I finally get my way".
Resource consent for the development was notified, and received about 20 submissions. Consent was obtained in December last year, after about a year and nearly $100,000 worth of expenses.
One good thing about the delay, Mr Reuters said, was that it gave time for people to sell their houses in the current sluggish real estate market.
Work has now finally begun on the subdivision after a three-month stand-down.
Mr Reuters owns the Wanganui franchise for Devon Homes and his usual teams of workers would be talking with customers about design, building and landscaping.
If there were no more delays the first people could be moving into their new dwellings in 14 months, he said.