The Rotorua Lakes Council chambers. Photo / Laura Smth
The Rotorua Lakes Council chambers. Photo / Laura Smth
An area of land earmarked for homes should be saved for sports fields as Kāinga Ora has enough housing in the pipeline to meet Rotorua’s needs, a Rotorua Lakes Council leader says.
District development deputy chief executive Jean-Paul Gaston spoke at a council meeting on Wednesday, during a discussion of a proposal to retain 3.89 hectares of council land earmarked four years ago for Kāinga Ora housing.
Gaston made the case it should instead be kept for future sportsfield needs.
“Reflecting the pressures we have on sportsfields and knowing now Kāinga Ora has a pipeline of housing that appears to be sufficient for our community, our greatest need is back now to that sports field need.”
Development and partnerships manager Stephanie Kelly told the council the land on Titoki Place, bordering Ray Boord Park Reserve in Pomare, was bought in 2000 for about $152,000 to be used as a sports field.
The council decided, however, to sell the land to Kāinga Ora in 2019, after it was not used for anything other than holding a stockpile of fill removed from nearby development and was surplus to requirement.
Rotorua Lakes Council community and district development group manager Jean-Paul Gaston. Photo / Laura Smith
Since then there have been a number of “constraints” that made development unfeasible, she said. These included earthwork requirements and flood risk.
The land was valued at about $2 million, but Kelly said Kāinga Ora was not prepared to pay that amount given the work needed to develop.
Kelly said two full-size sports fields could fit within the reserve and recommended the council keep it for that purpose, given it would not get the financial return it originally wanted, and given the identified need for sports fields.
By 2030, it was estimated another nine sports fields would be needed.
More work would need to be done on the details of the field layout and whether they could go there.
Elected members agreed to support retaining the land.
Councillor Robert Lee also asked for a report on whether the land could be used for stormwater detention. Gaston said he believed it could not, but could gather information on this.
A full costing would be brought back to elected members during the Long-Term Plan process.
Kāinga Ora’s website lists eight housing developments under construction in Rotorua, totalling more than 120 residences. It also lists 20 potential developments it is investigating in the city.
Laura Smith is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. She previously reported general news for the and Southland Express, and has been a journalist for four years.
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