Philippa Stevenson: Taupo development marches to own beat

Shania Twain's big mistake was to pick a ridge in the wrong island.

If the Canadian singer had really wanted to build a house high on a piece of iconic New Zealand countryside without the objections she encountered, she should have spent her $21.4 million near Lake Taupo instead of southern Wanaka high country.

Subdivision round the Great Lake is booming to such an alarming degree that some locals describe it as the Wild West of development.

Twain's house would never have been forced off the skyline at Taupo although, as a result of recent regard for the district's heritage landscapes, she probably would have had to put in the odd tree.

There has been a bit of a scramble on several fronts to manage land development around Taupo, which has forged ahead at pace since at least 2001. But efforts by the Taupo District Council and the Environment Waikato regional council are struggling in the wake of developers.

Last year, for instance, the district council produced the proposed Taupo West Rural Structure Plan. Launched under pressure from developers, it was intended to guide land subdivision, creating more than 3300 house sites between Acacia Bay and Kinloch over 20 years. It was also to be a template for all similar development plans.

But in February the council was forced to put the plan on hold after locals stressed that they wanted Taupo-wide growth taken into account rather than just a portion of it.

In response, last month the council put out a draft district growth management strategy to "establish clear and effective policy and processes" for managing growth over the next 20 to 50 years.

Take a drive on the westside, however, and clearly the growth cart is well ahead of a lumbering management horse.

With houses on hilltops silhouetted starkly against the sky and on slopes leading to the lake, there is a forest of "Section for sale" signs. Three or four blocks around this corner, 11 up this road, 76 on that, 130 on this former farm, 226 on that.

What's more, developers don't need a resource consent in hand before they start bulldozing rural land into roads, scouring hillsides, and generally laying out their subdivisions and marketing them.

Official estimates forecast new houses in Taupo (district population 33,700) to be sought at the rate of about 300 a year for 20 years - 6000 new dwellings in total.

But last year alone 688 lots, including apartments, were created. In the same time 285 building permits were issued. So while buildings are going up at the expected rate, land is being carved up at more than twice the pace of demand.

That disparity may well pose its own problem for property investors, but there are other, more important issues at stake - the impact of such widespread urban development on the landscape of one of the country's most precious environments and on the health of the already fragile lake.

"We are in danger of doing to Taupo what has already been done to Queenstown," says Gary Taylor of the Environmental Defence Society.

So far, the region's farmers have borne the brunt of criticism for activities that have contributed to the deterioration of the lake - principally nitrogen run-off - and have been targeted in clean-up efforts.

Over 15 years, taxpayers and ratepayers are stumping up $143 million just to start dealing with a legacy of land management that has caused water clarity to decline, weeds to grow and toxic algal blooms to develop.

Brian Robinson, chairman of the Lake and Waterways Action Group, says high-density urban environments produce as many nutrients as an intensive dairy farm.

Subdivision of farmland might be a good option for farmers because it lessens nitrogen run-off, but Robinson says that even if urban wastewater is handled well, the stormwater from housing developments would still pour nutrients and pollutants into the lake.

"We are worried about the developers' strategy," he says. "They are rules-focused, not environment-focused. It's about what they can get away with, not what can they do for the environment."

If Shania Twain had to sing to New Zealand's tune, why don't others?