Racecourse wrangle revives Caccia Birch memories
Everybody needs good neighbours.
The problem is, everybody has a different idea about what a good neighbour should be like.
And the situation gets more complicated when neighbours are involved in quite different types of activity, or want to change things.
That is why we have zoning. It is an attempt to create a line or a buffer between things that are likely to cause conflict between neighbours.
The lines are not set in concrete, and are often subject to review.
And none of us are all that good at accepting change.
RACE, the Racing at Awapuni Combined Enterprise, has just been delivered a difficult lesson about that.
Several years ago, it sold off a whole lot of land, which was rezoned for residential janine.rankin@fairfaxmedia.co.nz
development, allowing it to take the money and invest it in the racecourse and facilities.
The people who bought those prime sections built up-market houses in the charming cul-de-sacs and settled into good lives.
While there must be race days when the noise from the speakers is a bit intrusive, the neighbours have generally enjoyed having views across the race course land toward the hills, and have enjoyed the peace and quiet.
Whatever annoyance there might have been about racecourse activities would have been generally tolerated because, well, the racecourse was there first.
But there was trouble when RACE decided it wanted to change things.
Resource management commissioners have just issued a decision agreeing to rezone a bit more of its land for residential subdivision, so RACE can make a bit more money from selling property it does not need to invest in the facilities.
The neighbours seem to have reluctantly agreed that’s fair enough. There will be rules that ensure their new neighbours will build nice houses, and the ageing trees that will be sacrificed for housing will be replaced with a new row of oaks to match the survivors.
But the idea of shifting the main entrance to the racecourse into their quiet neighbourhood streets was not to be tolerated, and the commissioners agreed.
They could see that directing race day traffic through a cul-desac that exists most of the time for the residents’ exclusive use would have had a significant impact for the worse.
And while the residents were on the subject, they raised complaints about some problems that were already occurring.
They used the opportunity to highlight the way overflow parking from people attending large events at the function centre already cluttered up their streets on occasion, and the commissioners agreed that issue should be tidied up also.
It’s worth quoting exactly what the commissioners said.
‘‘While the club’s ability to use its surplus land as a funding bank has enabled the historic racecourse to continue, other resource management consequences are now appearing.
‘‘Specifically, the development of high-quality residential areas in proximity to the racecourse has led to potential conflict between the respective expectations of these quite different activities.
‘‘Having brought residential development to its current boundary, the racecourse must now work with the consequence that its future development will be influenced and possibly constrained by the potential effects of that future development on residents.’’
The whole situation is reminiscent of what happened with the city’s historic Caccia Birch homestead. Restoration of the building was paid for by subdividing off some highly desirable sections in Hokowhitu.
Once the neighbourhood was established at the boundary, and once the Caccia Birch Trust Board started looking for ways to pay for the upkeep of the restored stately house, ‘‘conflict between the respective expectations of these quite different activities’’ arose.
The neighbours used every channel available to them to effectively silence activities at Caccia Birch. The function centre struggles to pay its way, hampered by an 11pm curfew that requires events to shut down at 10.30pm to clear the property on time.
Such are the joys of having neighbours.
End note:
Palmerston North city councillor and former deputy mayor Jim Jefferies left the key annual rates debate early this year to attend a function in Wellington.
Jefferies was off to officially receive his Queen’s Service Medal, which was announced in the New Year honours list.
It was great to see him recognised in this way, along with other city residents Gilbert Timms, Bob Jahnke and Maurice Takarangi. There were a couple of people at the investitures from Ashburton as well. But a search through the latest Queen’s Birthday honours list yielded slim pickings for Palmerston North, as in, nobody at all.
Whether this last list was just a blip or representative of a real decline in Palmerston North people carrying out good works is yet to be seen.
We have been quite good at nominating people for community awards, but we should aim higher. We should shake off the modesty and get motivated to nominate more people for top honours.