Cash raised for Lincoln appeal
A crowdfunded campaign to stop 186 hectares of soon-to-be protected Canterbury farmland being turned into a subdivision has met its fundraising goal – just in time to file its legal challenge.
In June, Selwyn district councillors approved a plan change to rezone a large swathe of rural land outside Lincoln to residential on an independent commissioner’s recommendation.
Rolleston Industrial Developments, owned by the Carter Group’s Philip and Tim Carter, first applied for the plan change to create a 2000-lot subdivision in late 2020. That number was later revised to 1710 lots.
But locals vowed to fight the decision, with a group of residents called Lincoln Voice launching a Givealittle campaign to cover legal costs. It had raised more than $11,000 as of yesterday and the group said it would file its appeal to the Environment Court by today’s deadline. Lincoln Voice spokesperson Jo Brady said the funds raised so far would cover the cost of lodging the appeal, expected to be about $7000. But the full cost of the case was expected to be over $100,000.
‘‘It will be quite some time before the case is scheduled for a hearing in the Environment Court, during which time we will continue our efforts to raise funds and will be looking to garner national support as the loss of [highly productive land] is a national issue with national impacts. We are confident we can do this – it can be done as shown by Aotearoa Water Action raising $100,000 for their successful case against consents for water bottling in Christchurch.’’
While locals had several concerns – including a lack of roading, education and healthcare infrastructure to support a development of this size – the appeal would be based on the ‘‘irreversible loss of productive land’’.
Soil scientists say at least half the lot is made up of highly productive farmland – which councils will soon be required to protect under a new national policy statement (NPS) Cabinet is expected to finalise any day now – after years of Covid-19 delays.
Developer Tim Carter previously said Lincoln South would be a ‘‘master-plan development’’, and the future expansion of Lincoln would be done in a coordinated and planned way.