Rest home project goes ahead

Work is going ahead on a $50 million rest home rebuild and expansion in Christchurch, despite opposition.

Oceania Healthcare is building a two and three-storey facility with 139 rooms and units including 68 mostly two-bedroom apartments between Windermere Rd and Condell Ave in Papanui.

The first of the 160 residents are expected to move in in 2022. About 60 staff will be employed.

A resource consent for the development was rejected in 2017 by commissioner Janette Dovey because of the project’s impact on neighbouring properties.

However, Oceania Healthcare appealed that decision to the Environment Court and approval was granted after mediation with residents. The company originally planned to build 151 rooms and units to accommodate 195 residents, and then downscaled to 141 rooms and again to 139 as a result of the mediation.

Residents believed the development was too high, too bulky and did not fit with the neighbourhood’s character. Rex Ormandy, who lives opposite the facility and was one of 21 residents to oppose it, said when residents went to mediation they found out Oceania had revised its plans slightly and the Christchurch City Council did not oppose the new plans. If residents continued to oppose it through the Environment Court and lost, they could have been facing costs of more than $100,000, he said.

‘‘It’s a battle that has been fought and we feel like we got as much concession as we were going to get, considering the council’s position.

‘‘We’re still not happy about it but it is what it is now.’’

He said he still felt the size and scale of the development was inappropriate for the area.

The development replaces the Windermere Retirement Village, which was mostly demolished after suffering damage during the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes.

The rest home was halfway through a two-stage development, consented in 2007, when the earthquakes struck. A rest home has been on the site in some form for the past 50 years. The new development is bigger than the one consented to in 2007.

Oceania Healthcare sales, marketing and villages general manager Jill Birch said the facility would be built in two stages with 71 ‘‘care suites’’ and 22 mostly two-bedroom apartments being built in stage one, which would be complete by the end of 2021. Work on stage two – the 46 apartments – would depend on demand, Birch said.

‘‘We’re still not happy about it.’’ Neighbour Rex Ormandy