Todd puts case for Okura housing plan
Property firm spells out $48m intentions for disputed project
Todd Property is today advancing $1.4 billion plans to build 750 to 1000 new residences on land where that development is now barred. A new website spells out Todd’s intentions for its $48 million, 130ha North Shore site at Okura, outside Auckland’s urban boundary.
The land is north of Todd’s 2000-residence Long Bay project, where Todd Property chief executive Evan Davies says about 400 residences are already up.
But Todd wants its Okura land included within city boundaries so it can build scale.
“On the edge of Auckland city, next to the thriving community of Long Bay, a unique housing development has been proposed,” the website says.
It emphasises how the business will protect the marine reserve, extend the Long Bay Regional Park and provide access to the beach from Todd’s land, currently subdivided into large lots.
Davies says the scheme will greatly improve public access, development will be done carefully and the marine environment improved.
“The proposal we’re advancing deals responsibly with the concerns that some sectors of the community have expressed about risk to the marine and associated environments,” Davies said.
Niwa marine ecologists assessed
potential impacts and concluded the project would cause no “adverse effects on the biodiversity of the Okura Estuary or in the marine reserve”, the website says.
Todd put its plans to the Unitary Plan hearings panel which recommended a plan change be allowed.
Auckland Council officials then recommended to the governing body that the panel’s recommendation be accepted. But the body voted against both recommendations.
If the court allows the scheme, Todd plans that 42 per cent of the site, worth $20m, would be transferred into public ownership, Davies said.
To get its plans approved, Todd’s Okura Holdings, represented by Sue Simons of Berry Simons, is headed to the Environment Court against the council, the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society, the Long BayOkura Great Park Society, Okura Environmental Group and Weiti Development Limited Partnership, according to Todd.
Pete Townend, society deputy convenor, vehemently opposes housing on the land and says a parkland/public access offer is no tradeoff. “The problem is the impact of putting 1000 houses on there. It turns the green belt area into another urban strip with a grassland above the estuary and it’s not an area where the general public will rush down to go swimming. It’s an area where very rare birds are feeding and reproducing. The regional park goes up to the estuary and most people don’t realise the park is already extended, so that area would be heavily impacted by any new development.
“The Okura walkway has up to 70,000 people a year and those people look out on to an estuarine and rural environment. That would be changed and we haven’t met anyone who said ‘oh, that’ll improve the area.’ They say the opposite: ‘We can’t let that happen, that’ll ruin it!’
“As Auckland expands, how do we protect the existing recreational space for Aucklanders?” he asked.
Construction could cause major pollution, he said, particularly with rain. Dogs and cats and a lack of mass permeable areas were other concerns. Townend criticised a lack of a national coastline plan and worried about the costs of facing a legal challenge from Todd.