Napier keeps controversial site in strategy plan while Hastings votes no to building on fertile land

Housing development sites on highly productive land in Middle Road, Havelock North have been removed from the draft Napier Hastings Future Development Strategy. Photo / Warren Buckland

Two proposed residential development sites on productive land in Middle Rd, Havelock North have been removed from the draft Napier Hastings Future Development Strategy (FDS).

The decision was made at a Hastings District Council meeting on Tuesday.

Napier City Council also met on Tuesday and unanimously decided not to remove any Napier sites from the draft FDS.

That decision included keeping two controversial Napier sites in the draft document – a site off Riverbend Rd that backs onto Maraenui Park, where 660 homes could be built, and Ahuriri Station next to Hawke’s Bay Airport, where 1000 homes could also be built.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council previously decided it did not want the Riverbend Rd site included in the draft FDS because of flood risks.

The bottom right map shows the sites in Middle Road, Havelock North, to be removed from the Napier Hastings Future Development Strategy.

Napier Deputy Mayor Annette Brosnan said she understood their stance as they “needed to show a firm hand on flood-prone land post-Cyclone Gabrielle”.

However, she said land had to be identified for future growth, and a technical advisory group had put forward the best options around Napier.

“To be frank, if the land was easy, it would have been developed already at some stage over the last 150 years.

“Meaning, of course, in this process we are only left with the hard-to-develop land, the complex-infrastructure-need land, and the controversial or conflicting priority land.”

The draft FDS could still be tweaked following the public consultation process, anticipated to run from November 23 to December 23.

If a site is included in the final FDS document, it does not mean developments proposed for those areas will be automatically approved.

Any proposed development will still need to go through a resource consent application or a district plan change in future.

The land, however, will be considered suitable by councils for housing or business developments.

HDC noted in the FDS that its priority focus on “ensuring future physical building/housing development in the Napier/Hastings Future Development Strategy catchment, is directed away from locations where natural hazards cannot be safely mitigated”.

“And the protection of Land Use Capability 1, 2 and 3 fertile soils.

“Council expects these issues to be a topic of robust interrogation and discussion both during the Formal Consultation Process and later as the draft Napier / Hastings Future Development Strategy is considered and finalised by the Partner Councils in 2025.”

Councillor Damon Harvey said the productive Heretaunga Plains “drive our economy and we have to do our utmost to protect them, now and into the future”.

“We are the food capital of New Zealand with our farmers, orchardists, wine producers supporting many local businesses, that are the backbone of our region’s economy. We have to do all we can to not turn fertile land into concrete,” he said.

“It’s great to see that all councillors are unwavering in a vision of ‘fertile land, prosperous people’.”

Save the Plains Group spokesman Richard Gaddum was delighted a motion was put forward to remove the two Middle Rd areas (52hectares in total) from the FDS.

“As an amendment to this motion, the HDC also opposed any area in the FDS with a natural hazard risk such as flooding and liquefaction. This is a fantastic step forward in the progression of the FDS,” he said.

The Havelock North sites included 640 dwellings and council notes said the areas were not needed to provide sufficient development capacity to meet demand and that the sites were areas of land which are highly productive.

“It would be contrary to the objectives of the FDS to include these areas.”

Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said the FDS had been in process for 18 months. She thanked staff and organisations who had helped prepare it.

“It’s very comprehensive and hasn’t been done before,” she said.

She said differences in opinion on the strategy are to be expected from both councillors and councils at this stage but “our job today is to adopt it”.

The FDS is a tool to help with the integration of planning decisions under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) with infrastructure and funding decisions.

Additional reporting: Gary Hamilton-Irvine

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.