Ranges fuel Waitakere debate

Waitakere City's residents are braced for a flurry of planning consultation over the holiday period

So nervous is the Waitakere City Council over a plan to impose tougher controls on subdivision in the Waitakere Ranges, it is paying a consultant to give advice on whether it has consulted properly.

The caution is probably justified. Any council seeking feedback on its most contentious issue between now and February is certain to face accusations it consulted residents when council business was the last thing on their minds.

Waitakere Ranges Protection Society (WRPS) chairman John Edgar calls relying on a consultant to analyse residents' feedback an "out-clause".

"There's been a huge amount of information on this but people don't read it," he says.

Mr Edgar is a long-time fighter for stronger conservation of the ranges and surrounding foothills. On the opposing side are landowners, set on defending private property rights.

While this argument has been raging for more than a decade, the final battle appears to have begun.

The plan is to get a bill, declaring 26,000ha of the ranges, including 18,000ha of regional parkland, a heritage protection area with strict rules on development and subdivision.

Supporters have a tight timeline. Their best chance of success is to get the bill before Parliament while a Labour-led Government is still in power. That is, before next year's general election.

So consultation with residents has to be finished by early February and a draft bill in the House by March. After select committee hearings, the bill could be law by next year.

A gripe by opponents is that no-one has sighted a draft version of the bill, yet questionnaires are being sent to residents with a deadline for return of February 4.

This is the third "phase" of consultation by the council, yet the draft bill was supposed to be available by phase two, earlier this year.

"It should have been out a long time ago," says Waitakere resident and ARC councillor Paul Walbran.

Mr Walbran, along with fellow Waitakere ARC councillor Sandra Coney, is a supporter of legislation.

Also cheering from the sidelines are three local Labour MPs, including Conservation Minister and Te Atatu resident Chris Carter, and newly elected Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee.

Long-time mayor Bob Harvey is also in the supporters' camp but he wants a trade-off: if there is to be less development in the West near the ranges, then the city must be allowed to bust through the urban limits to the north.

Waitakere City is the second-fastest growing city in the Auckland region after Manukau, with a population set to rise to a high of 332,743 by 2046, up from 176,220 in 2001.

It is second only to Manukau on the list of cities running out of land for housing, with between 16 and 25 years of "household capacity" left.

The ranges cover around 30,000ha of western-most Waitakere, supply about 27 per cent of Auckland's drinking water and are home to a number of threatened species, including Hochstetter's frog, a long-tailed bat and a native mistletoe.

They are one of the most-visited wilderness areas in the country, with giant kauri, waterfall, 250km of walking track and surf beaches at Piha, Karekare and Whatipu.

About 12,000ha of land leading into the ranges is privately owned, including parts of Titirangi, Henderson Valley, Laingholm, Oratia, Swanson and Waiatarua.

The district plan lays down the rules for subdivision. In the core, bushy areas, lots must be at least 4ha but in areas like Titirangi and Laingholm smaller lots may be allowed.

At present, 600 lots are in separate title in the foothills area, according to Mr Edgar. Under any new law, those will remain.

"People who already have a property right, a land title now, that will not be taken away," he said. "What we are trying to stop is the creation of more titles."

But Steve Healy and other landowners don't buy that argument.

"We already have a very comprehensive district plan full of regulations and hoops and loops you have to jump through," he said.

A 50-something father of four with a 4ha block in Swanson, Mr Healy has served on the local school board and chairs a group fighting over subdivision rules in Swanson.

Swanson is a microcosm of the Waitakere Ranges debate. A "structure plan" was approved by Waitakere City Council, allowing another 144 lots to be subdivided but WRPS and some Swanson landowners have challenged the council's decision in the Environment Court.

If the structure plan is upheld, Mr Healy will be able to cut off one section. That would cost around $40,000 and might be worth around $200,000.

He accuses WRPS and other opponents of the structure plan of "scaremongering", accusing those who want to subdivide of behaving like "greedy developers".

"Very few have bought in recently with a view to making a quick buck," he said.

"We love living here, we don't want roofs crowding the skyline but you can't look after a 4ha block forever."

While debate over the ranges will intensify over the next couple of months, Mr Harvey is busy putting his case for Waitakere's expansion in the north.

The main areas for further residential and commercial development are on Hobsonville Rd, opposite Westgate shopping centre, where there are plans for a brand new town centre with residential, retail and commercial activity housing another 10,000 people by 2030.

The city will also expand east, into Hobsonville Peninsula and land around Whenuapai airbase and, eventually, into the Redhills area.

It is up to the ARC to decide whether or not the city limits are moved to make way for all this. While the expansion plan is generally in line with the Regional Growth Strategy, drawn up and signed by Waitakere City along with all Auckland's councils and a blueprint for growth in the Auckland region for the next 50 years, around half the proposed town centre site near Westgate is not in the strategy.

By all accounts, preliminary discussions last week between the Waitakere mayor and the ARC got just a little heated.

"We are embarking on a programme to preserve the foothills and ranges from inappropriate development but we have to go somewhere," Harvey says.

"We are saying this is not a trade-off, we will make sure that the foothills and ranges are sacrosanct but we have to be able to expand."