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The lobby group Keep Whangaparāoa’s Green Spaces (KWGS) is hosting another public meeting on the situation surrounding the shuttered Gulf Harbour Country Club, shortly after its owners applied to Auckland Council for consent to effectively split the 89 hectare property into two.
Planning for the December 7 meeting at the Wentworth College Sports Centre was already underway when the latest development occurred, fuelling long-held concerns that the club’s owners may seek a zoning change to enable residential development on the site.
KWGS responded in a statement urging council to reject the resource consent application, describing it as “a cynical and disingenuous attempt to over-build Gulf Harbour by undermining the 999-year encumbrance that protects the golf course land as open space”.
KWGS spokesperson Howard Baldwin said earlier the group’s legal team has been investigating what remedies are available through the courts for the community to protect the green space and the encumbrance, which was agreed between GHCC and council in 2006.
A fundraising team has started a drive for donations, to fund expected legal costs.
In another initiative, KWGS last week sent a letter to parties that may be interested in the property – businesses, developers and real estate firms – giving the background to the dispute and warning them off considering the site for future residential development.
“Any attempts by developers to obtain a change to the zoning of the golf course land will meet fierce opposition from KWGS and the Whangaparāoa community,” the letter states.
The group warned that any party seeking a private plan change or attempting to vary or remove the encumbrance would risk damaging their corporate reputation and be confronted by “a formidable organisation with resources and capability to fight” to preserve the zoning.
Council confirmed again last week that no private plan change application has been lodged relating to the golf course site.
GHCC’s Christchurch-based director Wayne Bailey, who broke the news of the closure in a letter to members in July, has not responded to requests for an update.
KWGS has invited Albany ward councillors Wayne Walker and John Watson and Whangaparāoa MP Mark Mitchell to attend.
The public meeting starts at 7pm.
