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Four months after Gulf Harbour Country Club closed, its owner has applied for resource consent to alter the boundaries of the course, effectively subdividing it into two parts, one of which it hopes to sell.
The closure of the course immediately prompted fears within the community that any sale of the unprofitable business could lead to residential development there.
However, an encumbrance registered in 2006 restricts for 999 years the use of the site, in its entirety, as a golf course and country club.
The application lodged with Auckland Council last week, is described as “the first step in the golf course redevelopment”. It seeks to separate the land into two titles – a smaller one at the northern end of the site, near Whangaparaoa Golf Club and the other, the coastal land to the south.
In its application, Long River Investments states that the primary reason for the course’s lack of profitability is the maintenance required over its 90ha footprint.
“The area to the north of Gulf Harbour Drive, which is just over 37.5ha (proposed new title 1), will be sold to fund the golf course redevelopment over a more sustainable footprint,” the application says.
The application says that it is not possible to consolidate an 18 hole course within the remaining land – just over 51.3ha – but that “contracts to purchase further coastal land adjacent to the existing golf course on Daisy Burrell Drive are in place”.
That land currently belongs to Hoppers Development, which has master-planned a development there and is in the final stages of resource consent. In April, Hoppers categorically denied that any arrangement existed with the golf club owners. The paper is now seeking that renewed assurance.
Should that be the case, the second portion of land would not be sufficient for an 18 hole course.
The resource consent application says that Long River Investments does not seek to alter any of the previous golfing activities or establish any new activities on site.
But it does hint that this is a first step in a process that will lead, in time, to attempts to change the zoning: The application says that should the boundary adjustment be approved, that does not preclude the site retaining its Open Space zoning, “should future statutory approval applications be unsuccessful”.
It also states that matters such as “public concern relating to the loss of open space and additional development” are irrelevant to the current resource consent application “and must be set aside”.
Long River Investments requested that the application not be publicly notified, on the basis that it is consistent with relevant statutory documents and that “no persons are considered to be adversely affected by the proposal”.
However, that decision rests with Auckland Council’s planners, who have until December 13 to make that call (subject to the need to seek more information from the applicant).
Long River Investments’ sole director is Christchurch-based accountant Errol Wayne Bailey. Bailey is also the sole director of GHCC 2016 Ltd, and in that capacity notified members in July that the club was closing.
Bailey became sole director of Long River Investments and GHCC on October 21, 2021, succeeding Greg Olliver in both cases. On that same day, the Deputy Registrar of Companies prohibited Olliver from serving as a company director for four years. His directorship ban expires on October 20, 2025.
There will be an update to this story in the November 27 edition of Hibiscus Matters.
