KEY POINTS:
Residents fear a huge subdivision, the biggest in Whangarei for decades, is putting homes at risk.
Whangarei Heights Ltd has been granted resource consent to build 253 homes over eight stages in the next 10 years in Raumanga.
The project will involve about 360,000cu m of earthworks and Raumanga Heights Drive, the only access to the development, will have to be modified to cater for the large number of trucks expected.
A spokesman for local residents, David Child-Dennis, said five property owners had called in engineers after cracks started appearing on their land.
He claimed those cracks had emerged only since developers began clearing vegetation on the proposed site directly below their homes this year.
He said the cleared vegetation had played a vital role in stabilising properties along Raumanga Heights Drive and Isola and Tauroa Sts. He accused the Whangarei District Council's hearings committee of ignoring that point.
But the chairwoman of the council committee that approved the application, Robin Lieffering, said engineers from her council and the Northland Regional Council had found the cracks were not linked to the development.
"Those engineers assessed the movements of the ground around those properties were not fresh."
She suggested the cracks were a result of the ground being poorly compacted when the houses were built.
Mrs Lieffering said the committee took the residents' concerns seriously, and had imposed a raft of conditions to address them.
The developer was required to provide detailed plans and assessments on all issues including land stability throughout the 10-year project.
"All the way through there will be considerable monitoring," she said.
Mr Child-Dennis acknowledged some homes had been built on poorly compacted land, but said that had been mitigated by the presence of vegetation below their properties.
"This whole subdivision, this whole face, is moving and it's not slow."
He said a similar development stalled 30 years ago because of concerns about land stability in the area.
Raumanga Heights Drive resident Ken Carter said subsidence at the back of his property had caused the land under his deck to move about 10cm, and a bank behind his house had large cracks in it.
"[Last month we] discovered a slip on the bank where our deck joins," he said.
He is awaiting a final engineer's report but suspects the cracks and holes were caused by heavy machinery used at the site in July to clear vegetation.
He said the machinery shook the trees free, causing the land to crack.
Mr Carter approached the council but said he had no luck.
The Earthquake Commission is now involved and Mr Carter is seeking legal advice.
- Northern Advocate
