KEY POINTS:
A developer has won resource consent to build 150 houses in the "green belt" that stops urban Auckland pushing further north, promising to ban cats and create public access to its remote coastal fringes.
Planning commissioners gave consent for subdivision, earthworks and drainage after a five-day hearing on behalf of Rodney District Council and Auckland Regional Council. The sites are in the coastal 840ha Weiti Forest, which is the largest privately owned chunk of undeveloped land left on Auckland's northeast coast.
Williams Land principal Evan Williams said he was pleased with the decision.
He said development in Karepiro Bay would occupy half of the 216ha allowed by existing zoning. Buildings would cover only 3.3 per cent of the whole property.
"This will be an exclusive development," said Mr Williams.
Rules for residents included an architecture code, provisions for management of native bush and protection of wild life, a ban on cat ownership and tight controls of dogs.
Mr Williams said controls on stormwater would reduce sediment flows from the catchment to the benefit of the ecology of Okura Estuary and the Okura-Long Bay Marine Reserve. Houses would be set back 200m to 400m from the coast.
The company was working on a cultural management plan for pre-European archaeological sites with four interested iwi.
"We are trying to develop this as sensitively and gently as we can."
A public carpark for 50 vehicles would be provided at the end of an upgraded access road, in addition to pedestrian access to Karepiro Bay and building a walkway between the bay and Stillwater.
Mr Williams said there was a good prospect of most of the pine forest cover being retained.
The company originally planned 600 sites in the same space.
It was reviewing whether it should proceed with its appeal to the Environment Court against the 150 lots limitation in the proposed Rodney District Plan.
Commissioner Harry Bhana said: "I accept there will be some adverse effects but in my view they are an inevitable outcome of the zoning provisions which have been in force for some 20 years."
An objector to the consent, Pete Townend, said he was disappointed at the decision. It was poor zoning to allow 150 houses to spoil the "stunning bit of wilderness" in the southern part of the forest.
