Developer funds used to buy back reserve

The Marlborough District Council has bought a developer’s green space with funds from the developer’s own pocket.

A rope bridge and ‘‘woodland walk’’ could be key attractions at a new reserve in Blenheim’s Rose Manor estate, off Old Renwick Rd, bought by the council for just over $1 million.

It was paid for by fees charged to developers, used to offset the cost of linking sections to services and cover ‘‘growth issues’’, which would otherwise be covered by ratepayers.

Council property and community facilities manager Jamie Lyall said this included new playgrounds, like the one the council planned to put down at its new Rose Manor reserve.

The council also used the land subdivision account to fund 29 other projects this financial year, for a total of $3.2m.

This included $78,000 for the region’s rural skate parks and $715,000 for the region’s school and reserve playgrounds.

Lyall said council protocols recommended playgrounds or recreational areas be put down within 500 metres of each other. The nearest existing playground to Rose Manor was about 480m away, at Rutledge Reserve, off

Rutledge Drive.

Design plans showed the reserve could have a ‘‘large, open space for free play’’, a shelter made of concrete and rustic timber, and a ‘‘woodland walk’’ track behind the playground.

The playground itself could have timber swings, towers, a rope bridge, a slide and a flying fox, the design plans said.

Lyall said the size of the reserve reflected the number of properties the playground service, and had been negotiated with Rose Manor developer

DeLuxe Property Group Limited.

DeLuxe Property Group Limited developer Greg Smith said large developments like Rose Manor, with 185 sections, were required to set aside reserve land for future owners.

‘‘For every section that we develop, we pay about $15,000 to [the] council in reserve fund contributions. Those reserve fund contributions go towards buying the reserve off us.’’

The reserve equated to about four sections in space, each worth about $295,000 in ‘‘the early days’’, when the council and DeLuxe Property Group were negotiating a sale price.

The council agreed last November to purchase the reserve for a total of $1,026,000 from its land subdivision account.

A number of smaller ‘‘pocket parks’’ would be created in Rose Manor to allow pedestrians to walk through the estate.

Rose Manor’s latest sections were now about $375,000, meaning the reserve represented about $1.5m in lost land.

The region was currently facing a housing shortage, made worse by new subdivision sections being slow to come on the market and limitations on how Blenheim could grow.

Marlborough’s median house price jumped to $565,000 in October in a new high, up 26.8 per cent from the year before, as part of a New Zealand wide shortage of housing stock.

Rose Manor would also feature an early learning centre with the capacity for 105 children and 15 full time employees.

Many of Rose Manor’s sections have already been sold The Marlborough District Council has used development fees to buy back a reserve in Rose Manor, in Blenheim.