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The projected expansion of Warkworth will require future additions and upgrading to transport corridors around the town. Auckland Council is considering Notices of Requirement (NoRs) lodged by Supporting Growth, a collaboration of Auckland Transport and Waka Kotahi, aimed at protecting the land needed for eight transport projects. The proposals affect an estimated 19 full properties and parts of a further 217. Submissions were invited earlier this year, and hearings are scheduled for next month.
In this edition, Mahurangi Matters takes a closer look at NoR6 – the southern portion of an envisaged arterial corridor known as the western link road (WLR). NoR6 runs from the end of Evelyn Street and skirts the light industrial area before meeting up with the old SH1, at the intersection of McKinney Road.
The designation for the proposed western link road (WLR) in south-west Warkworth directly affects 18 properties to varying degrees, and as with several of the other Warkworth NoRs, the lapse period is 20 years. This means the designation expires only if it is not effected within 20 years from the date on which it is included in the Auckland Unitary Plan.
Among 15 submissions lodged for the hearings regarding NoR6 are several relating to the Morrison family, whose history in the area as farmers and orchardists goes back more than a century and a half.
In his submission on behalf of the family’s Gumfield Property, Bevan Morrison says it believes in the “consultative inclusive approach” to resolving problems, but that has not been the case with the NoR6 consultation.
“We have major concerns with the restrictions that the WLR will put on the continuing development [of] our live-zoned industrial land.”
Morrison says the company recently bought a piece of land to the south of Morrison Drive, and that although Supporting Growth was kept informed of its plans for development, they were not taken into consideration when the WLR placement was designated.
Those development plans include extending Morrison Drive to accommodate a subdivision where
Te Whatu Ora hopes eventually to build a new community health hub (see sidebar).
Morrison also draws attention to the impact the 20-year time lapse period will have on land ownership.
“We are told there are no plans [by Auckland Transport] to buy land in the foreseeable future, just tie it up for an unspecified time – 20 to 30 years,” he writes. “How is Gumfield Property expected to service the debt and pay for this land when it is now impossible to develop it?”
The Morrisons want council to recommend that the WLR plan be jettisoned altogether, or – if
Supporting Growth is not prepared to do so – to amend the designation to ensure it does not affect the future Te Whatu Ora site, avoids an existing water reservoir, and is more appropriately situated in relation to current and future zoned development land.
The NoR has already scuppered one significant potential development, Morrison says.
“In this process we have lost an interested international buyer who was looking for 20,000 square metres of industrial land to develop immediately, which cannot be accommodated with the current alignment of the WLR,” he says. “This is not to mention the jobs lost that would have come with a development of this size.”
Robyn Morrison, Bevan Morrison’s mother and a director of Gumfield Property, says the situation is causing the family both frustration and “a considerable amount of trepidation”, since it is paying $30,000 a year in rates on the piece of industrial zoned land “that we can’t touch for 20 years”.
“We’re farming – we can’t service that level of debt for 20 years.”
Robyn says her grandchildren will be the sixth generation on the farm, but “it gets to a stage where we think we’re not going to be able to afford to keep it, and that is very distressing”.
“It’s quite frightening when you consider the amount of money that’s tied up in that piece of land, that we have to pay rates on, and yet by the terms of the NoR there’s a huge portion of that that we can’t touch, for an undefined length of time.”
Robyn says Supporting Growth’s consultation efforts had been very poor, amounting more to ticking the box than to actual, positive engagement.
Residential subdivision at risk
Robyn and husband Tom have lodged a separate submission on NoR6, noting that the designated area entirely covers a large water tank supplying farm stock and four houses. The tank’s location is optimal and moving it would be impractical, their submission says. Instead, the road alignment should be adjusted.
Woodcocks Property, which owns land on Lachlan Thompson Drive, says in its submission it opposes NoR6 because it has applied for resource consent for a subdivision comprising 71 residential lots and one light industrial or commercial lot. The application is under appeal at the Environment Court.
At the other end of the envisaged WLR, the owners of a house on the corner of McKinney Road and old SH1 are unhappy that the designation includes a cut batter face extending about five metres into their property.
In their submission, Kyle and Heather Deans note that the designation comes to within two metres of their home in some places. They ask council to recommend that the NoR be declined unless changes are made to avoid or reduce the impact on their property.
In response to criticism about the consultation process, an Auckland Transport spokesperson said earlier that Supporting Growth had engaged with potentially impacted landowners and community throughout the indicative and detailed business case phases and Notices of Requirement process.
“This consultation process has been comprehensive and included individual meetings with landowners at local community venues, online and onsite.”
Health hub plan remains in place
A Notice of Requirement to protect the route for an envisaged western link road in Warkworth initially impacted land earmarked for a future community health hub, but Te Whatu Ora says the matter has been resolved.
The designation had sliced through a corner of the intended site for the hub, immediately to the south of the current Rodney Surgical Centre at 77 Morrison Drive.
In a submission lodged ahead of public hearings on the NoRs, to be held in Warkworth next month, Te Whatu Ora cited the potential effect on its plans for a health hub, which it described as a “one-stop shop” offering multiple patient services.
It said the resource consent application to create the lot had already been lodged and was being processed by Auckland Council.
But in response to Mahurangi Matters’ enquiries, Mark Shepherd, regional director of hospital and specialist services for Te Whatu Ora’s northern region, said that during a consultation process earlier this year, Supporting Growth had agreed to adjust the designation boundary in question, “subject to the outcome of the formal hearing”.
On plans for the health hub, Shepherd said the former Waitematā DHB bought the land with a view to the future development of health services in the Warkworth area as the local population continues to grow.
Warkworth’s population is projected to increase over the next 30 years from around 6500 to 25,000, he said, and it will be important to have expanded local services to meet the needs of the community.
Shepherd said the land was bought to preserve the opportunity to create a future hub offering outpatient clinics across a range of specialities, a wider range of mental healthcare services and potentially some diagnostic imaging.
“However, it is important to recognise the local population size is currently not large enough for these expanded services and, therefore, a business case seeking funding for the hub is not yet in development.”
He added that the purchase of the land remained conditional on resource consents for the subdivision and land use for healthcare being obtained.
