KEY POINTS:
A court challenge to allow a controversial plan to build apartments of "unprecedented" height on Papamoa's coveted beachfront resumes this week.
The 10-day Environment Court appeal enters its second week in Tauranga today, when opponents of the $300 million Papamoa Gateway development will begin presenting their cases.
Frasers Papamoa is proposing building seven "neighbourhoods" with a total of 711 apartments, housing about 2000 people, on a 25ha site on Papamoa Beach Rd.
Resource consent has been granted for five of the neighbourhoods but two were declined on the basis of their height, bulk and location.
Frasers wants to build three apartment blocks on each on the two lots, one at the beachfront and the other on the back of the site.
Houses on Papamoa's white-sand beach regularly fetch multimillion-dollar prices and the site is one of the last large tracts of land zoned for residential development in the area.
The planned apartments would exceed the district plan's 9m height limit by several metres and, in the case of the back lot, by up to three storeys - heights local councils say are unacceptable.
Frasers has appealed against the decision, arguing the development is consistent with the district plan and other regional policy documents, including Tauranga's long-term SmartGrowth Strategy, which advocates high-density housing to avoid urban sprawl.
Frasers' director Stephen Short did not want to comment while the hearing was in progress.
The company's lawyer Kate Barry-Piceno told the court increased height would allow large areas of open space and extensive planting.
But Tauranga City Council told the Herald the heights requested were unprecedented for any high-rise in a coastal residential zone.
Terry Wynyard, the council's group manager of environmental services, said mediation had failed to reach any compromise with the developer on the issue of height, leading to the current hearing.
"If the environmental effects were less than they are, we would likely have issued consents in the first instance," he said.
Environment Bay of Plenty also said the proposal was "well beyond" what was permitted.
The regional council's lawyer Paul Cooney said the company was proposing exceeding the height restriction by up to 7m on the beachfront lot and 18.2m on the back lot, although the developer said the top height on the back lot would be 15.6m.
Mr Cooney said five storeys rather than eight on the back lot would be acceptable and other than that the council was happy with the plan.
"We think it's a creative design," he said.
Frasers bought the 25ha in November 2003 from Nga Potiki hapu, which supports the development. Representative Whitiora McLeod told the court the intensification of the site was a "more efficient use of the land" than the sprawling one-storey housing developments that characterised Papamoa at the moment.
But other locals oppose the plan. Jill Parry, who represents a group called Sandy Walkers which claims to have more than 2000 members, said the development would ruin the sand dunes, saying, "[We want it] behind the sandhills and out of sight of the ocean beach."
On Offer
* Proposed Papamoa Gateway development will cost $300 million.
* There would be 711 apartments housing 2000 people.
* The site measures 25ha.
* Apartments would exceed the district plan's 9m height limit.
