Icepak tragedy’s final chapter
The scene of one of the country’s largest industrial fires will be rebuilt on, a decade after the disaster that left a firefighter dead and seven others injured.
But plans to fit more houses than usually allowed on the old Icepak Coolstores site in Tamahere have riled neighbours for whom memories of the fire remain fresh.
An April 2008 explosion on the Koppens Rd site killed firefighter Derek Lovell and injured seven others in a spectacular blaze that stopped traffic on nearby SH1 and generated a smoke plume visible across the region. Now, an Environment Court determination has cleared Grattan Investments to take out the old coolstore’s concrete pad and create six housing lots on the 2.1-hectare site.
‘‘Restoring the current derelict site to a high quality rural residential development will have social and community benefits for the community,’’ an Environment Court determination says, ‘‘and will help the community to move on from the fire, which has left a lasting impression.’’
The resource consent success for Grattan Investments came after an earlier rejection in January 2018.
Director Wayne Grattan – a former Icepak boss – appealed that, and he and Waikato District Council reached an agreement before the appeal process was concluded. Council hopes it will come to be seen as a good thing for Tamahere, but not everyone’s happy.
Tamahere resident Arnold Koppens is livid that Grattan was allowed smaller sections than what the District Plan states.
‘‘No-one had a problem with four sections. It’s the fact that he wants six,’’ he said.
Grattan Investment’s plan is for sections from 2793sqm to 3907sqm, yet the area is zoned for country living, meaning lots should be 5000sqm or larger. That’s a large part of why the first go at consent was
‘‘Council allows things to happen that shouldn’t happen.’’ Arnold Koppens
rejected, an Environment Court determination says – there were concerns about whether it would affect the neighbourhood, and set a precedent for future applications.
Grattan successfully argued that the Icepak site was unique due to its former commercial use and because it was now derelict.
He had accepted responsibility for the fire, he said, and the subdivision was ‘‘a process that I want to complete’’.
‘‘I wanted ... to make it look like something that, when you drive past it, it will look like other parts of the community and not necessarily be associated with a fire.’’
Concrete removal will start in the next few weeks, he said, and earthworks and services should be complete by the middle of 2019.
The 5000sqm section size is a blunt tool which fostered urban sprawl, Grattan said, and developers should be able to prove they could create a special character through the design of the subdivision.
Putting six lots on his subdivision would allow him to make it nicer, he said, as there would be extra costs for concrete removal, and to use landscaping features to protect the site from State Highway 1 and neighbouring properties. Concrete removal will cost about $250,000, the determination said.
The land use is ‘‘quite rightly’’ a sensitive subject for the community because of the site’s tragic history, Waikato District Council said.
‘‘The proposed development of this site will mean that the area will finally be cleaned up and developed for residential purposes,’’ a statement from council’s chief operating officer, Tony Whittaker, said, ‘‘and that is a good thing for Tamahere’’.
Arnold Koppens, who has lived in Koppens Road since the 60s, said there was ‘‘nothing unique about that bloody site at all’’.
The decision stretched the rules, he said: ‘‘Council allows things to happen that shouldn’t happen.’’
But the Environment Court decided the difference between a four-lot subdivision and a six-lot one would be ‘‘relatively minor’’.
There will be conditions to make sure it doesn’t affect the landscape or neighbourhood.
They include a ban on second dwellings on the sites, building so that the front house screens the view of the others, and hedgerow landscaping, the determination says.