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A panel will hear submissions over three days next month on a private plan change application to rezone 56.9 hectares of rural land north-west of Mangawhai Heads for residential development.
The owners of the site, east of Cove Road and north of Mangawhai Heads Road, The Rise Limited (TRL), envisage a future development of around 380 sections, with an average lot size of 600 square metres.
Private Plan Change 83 to the Kaipara District Plan seeks to rezone the site from rural to residential and create a bespoke precinct.
Kaipara District Council last June voted to publicly notify the proposal, and 69 submissions were received by the time the submission period closed in August. A further submission period in October brought three further submissions.
Among issues raised in submissions, some of them multiple times, were broad concerns about the capacity of the wastewater treatment plant and other infrastructure and community facilities, increased traffic congestion and potential flooding risk.
Others called for larger lot sizes, for a roundabout at the Mangawhai Heads Road-Cove Road intersection, for predator controls and a prohibition on dogs and cats.
The impact on the ecology was also raised, as were “reverse sensitivity” issues including calls for a no-complaints covenant to prevent future subdivision residents from complaining about rural odours and noise from livestock and agricultural equipment.
Council in December appointed a panel comprising Cr Mike Howard and independent commissioners David Hill and Justine Bray. The panel, chaired by Hill, will convene at the Mangawhai Bowling Club at 219 Molesworth Drive on March 26-28.
TRL will present its case and submitters will be heard, after which the panel will make a recommendation to council on the proposal.
Mayor Craig Jepson, a former TRL shareholder and inactive director, last June declared a conflict of interest and removed himself from any decision-making relating to the proposed project.
