Retirement village pitch

A riverside spot in northeast Hamilton is being eyed for a multimillion-dollar retirement village.

Ryman Healthcare has plans for the 8.4-hectare site in Flagstaff beside Featherstone Park, and they include apartments overlooking the Waikato River.

Some 150 people already want to live there, the company said. It’s currently vacant land.

Ryman Healthcare needs permission from Hamilton City Council to build the village and yesterday was the first day of the resource management hearing.

There is a desperate need for retirement housing in New Zealand, the independent commissioners heard.

‘‘Ryman already has a list of 150 people who want to move into the village,’’ development manager Andrew Mitchell said.

Those aged 75-plus in Hamilton are expected to reach 22,200 by

2043, he said – almost triple the

2013 figure. Ryman’s facility would include apartments, assistedliving suites and care beds.

But neighbours think the development – particularly the multistorey central building – would be ‘‘visually dominating and imposing’’.

Other worries included a potential loss of privacy, tree removals, the effects of construction and extra traffic.

Five buildings in the southern section would breach the district plan’s 10-metre height limit, which commissioners will have to consider.

Ryman says the retirement village will be a ‘‘good neighbour’’, designed with the biggest buildings at the centre and setbacks from boundaries.

It took several years to find the Flagstaff site, Mitchell said, and it was the only one in the area that was appropriate. It stood out for its large size, riverside location, neighbouring park, and established residential feel.

Finding a large residentially zoned site was rare, Ryman Healthcare counsel Luke Hinchey said.

‘‘I would submit it is unrealistic to expect a large undeveloped site in a highly desirable residential location not to be developed to its full extent.’’

Mitchell said at least $125 million would go into construction of the Flagstaff village.

But the development doesn’t gel with its surroundings, a group of residents said in a written submission. ‘‘[It] will be very visually dominating and imposing from every elevation.’’

It was like putting Waikato Hospital’s emergency department in the middle of suburbia, a submission from Elizabeth Yorston said. Like some other residents, she was opposed to the size, not the development itself.

Several submitters wanted lower buildings and a scaled-back development, and were worried about a long construction period or certain trees on the site.

Construction would be in two stages and the company hopes it would take somewhere between three years and three years and four months. The first residents would start moving in about a year after construction started, Mitchell said.

‘‘We would not expose our residents to construction impacts and I think, therefore, the surrounding area would benefit from that.’’

There will also be site boundary monitoring and before and after surveys for neighbouring homes.

The hearing continues today, when expert witnesses and those opposed to the development are due to speak.