Palm Springs residents including Peter Morgan have complained of an “eyesore” sand/soil mound blocking views of the Pāpāmoa Hills.
Residents of a Pāpāmoa East subdivision are angry and upset a development company has created "a huge pile of dirt" in front of "spectacular" views it used as a selling point for the area.
But Hawridge, the company leading development of the Palm Springs subdivision, says it is constrained by regulations and that buildings "substantially" higher than the mound will eventually be built on the land anyway.
Palm Springs resident Peter Morgan spoke to the Bay of Plenty Times on behalf of locals in one street upset about how the mound was blocking views of the Pāpāmoa Hills.
Those who live nearby have described the stockpile as an eyesore. Photo / Andrew Warner
He said it had been "growing quickly" over the past two months.
"Effectively what we can see is the two trees on top. Everything else has been obscured."
Morgan, who had been living in the area with wife Jo for five and a half years, believed the stockpile was 15 metres high in parts.
Jo Morgan said street residents felt "ignored and disrespected" as they had not been consulted or told about the earthworks before they started.
"We have emailed [the company] asking to be contacted to discuss the matter. Multiple residents have done the same thing and as far as we are aware they have also been ignored."
She said their "spectacular" views of the hills had been taken away and was worried this would impact property values.
"Residents are either angry or upset. They often like to sit and look at the beautiful views at night. It's such a beautiful sight - now they just look onto a giant mound. It's not what they sought when they bought here.
"It's just so healing to be near nature like that. It was important to us."
She said the development company used the hills as a "strong selling point for the area" and said in her view creating the mound showed a lack of care and "community spirit".
In her view: "We feel that Hawridge has made money out of us from the subdivision, and are happy to take our views and move on to the next group of homeowners to take money."
Pāpāmoa resident Peter Morgan in front of the sand stockpile. Photo / Andrew Warner
Fellow resident Paul Brown said the "eyesore" would contribute to a loss of enjoyment from living in their house and he believed it would put off prospective buyers.
"Instead of gazing at this unique view that we enjoyed daily and for hours and hours, our view now consists of looking at a huge pile of dirt," Brown said.
"The mound grew daily to the point where it is today, an utter eyesore and completely wiping our views."
He and his wife Tracey are overseas and were "quite distraught at the thought of returning home to the pile of dirt".
When they left the country the mound was smaller and judging by more recent pictures they were "lost for words" at the size and, in their view, the "utter disrespect for the property owners and complete destruction of our views".
Brown said attempts to raise concerns and negotiate with the development company as the stockpile grew had not achieved any solution.
He said he was "disgusted" by the company's attitude which he believed was "it is what it is and you'll just have to put up with it".
Residents agreed the only option was for the size of the stockpile to be "substantially reduced to the point of the views being reinstated", he said.
A photo of the stockpile on August 11. Photo / Supplied
Jo Morgan agreed the consensus was: "A compromise of it being lowered to give us back our views."
Greg Clarke, owner/director of Palm Springs developer Hawridge Developments said it was unfortunate the residents were upset about the temporary stockpile but he believed it had been put in a "responsible" location.
"We are certainly not trying to aggravate residents we hold in high regard. I hope they would be understanding of some of the constraints we are under due to when we can earthwork and when we can't, and they still appreciate a lot of attributes of the development they are living in," he said.
"If we had put that sand pile somewhere, someone else's view might have gone. There are various inconveniences when you are buying into a new area - it's part and parcel of us having to complete the works. And everyone is fairly aware of that I would think."
Developers were working under council constraints and could only do earthworks through winter due to stricter summer dust regulations, he said.
"In the past, we have had more scope for being able to do earthworks over summer periods with dust control, whereas we don't have that now. That may have meant we have had to put all that sand in one place then leave it there for a period of time."
The excess sand pile on undeveloped land was created as the company was doing a couple of stages of sections in winter.
A photo of the stockpile taken almost a month later from the same location. Photo / Supplied
Clarke did not know the exact size of the stockpile but he said it was on land with a height zoning requirement of 17.5 metres and eventually an "upmarket resort residential development" would be built on it.
He believed residents "would have known when they purchased that at some stage there will be a comprehensive upmarket development that will be substantially higher than what the pile of sand is".
The stockpile would be in place at least the next earthworking season next winter but possibly longer.
Clarke said it had been planted with grass seeds. "It's going to be aesthetic in no time at all rather than just a pile of sand."
He said it never "crossed our mind" to consult residents about the stockpile as the company had made sand hills before without this type of reaction.
In response to the residents' comments, Clarke said it was not a matter of "us trying to make money out of someone and then make money out of someone else".
"We always have surplus sand and create piles of it as other developers do. This is just a situation of a temporary nature where we have a stockpile of sand. The financial greed argument is a long way off."
Bay of Plenty Regional Council general manager regulatory services Reuben Fraser said the company was granted resource consent for earthworks to develop land for residential subdivision in 2017.
He said there was "no maximum size" of the stockpile in the consent and engagement with residents was not required as part of the council's consenting process.
"Essentially this is because the scope of effects that regional councils consider in relation to earthworks activities are constrained by section 30 of the RMA."
Fraser said there was no timeframe for the stockpile but it would remain in place until the next stage of work.
