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Plans to rezone land at Snells Beach to allow around 50 new houses, to the west of the township, have come under fire from Rodney Local Board members.
Wellington-based Prime Property Group wants to re-zone 4.6ha of land off Foster Crescent and Te Whau Lane from residential large lot to single house zoning in the Auckland Unitary Plan.
However, Board members are concerned this could put serious strains on infrastructure, adversely affect the Mahurangi Harbour and undermine the integrity of the Unitary Plan itself.
Speaking at the Board’s February meeting, chair Phelan Pirrie said allowing the zone change could set a precedent.
“We’ve spent two or three years developing the Unitary Plan, it really has been a long and serious process, and here we are again with developers wanting to chip away at it,” he said.
“If we allow this to happen, then someone will come along wanting one on the outside of this, then there’ll be another, then another and that whole green buffer area will disappear.”
Board members expressed concern that the change could use up existing infrastructure capacity earlier than planned, which could create “substantive disruption” to existing communities on a peninsula with limited access. They also said there was sufficient land within existing Unitary Plan zones to provide for Auckland’s housing needs and the existing large lot zoning provided a buffer in Snells Beach that should be protected.
Members expressed concerns that the proposed housing intensification could have adverse effects on the Mahurangi Harbour and said the request should be declined.
A decision on the plan change application will be decided at a hearing, the date for which had not been set as Mahurangi Matters went to press.
