Viewpoint – Rural carve up begins

In previous Viewpoint columns, I have been critical of the unplanned and haphazard industrial businesses that have been consented in Dairy Flat in the last five years. The area’s rural character is slowly eroding away, replaced by high-security fences, construction yards and storage containers with limited, if any, landscape planting and zero urban design.  

Given that this part of Dairy Flat is zoned Future Urban, and the proposed industrial area is not due for development until 2030 at the earliest, you are not alone in feeling bewildered at how this can happen in Auckland. 

There are plenty of good examples of well-planned industrial areas both in Auckland and internationally. However, things are all about to change. Council has accepted Fletchers and Fulton Hogan’s request for a private plan change to rezone 107 hectares of future urban land to light industrial. The site of the private plan change (PPC 103) area is from the Silverdale interchange and includes the area to SH1 to the east, and Dairy Flat Highway to halfway to Wilks Road. 

The PPC includes landscape buffers along both SH1 and Dairy Flat Highway, stream and wetland plantings, walking and cycling infrastructure and new roads within the proposed industrial area, and upgrades to intersections along Dairy Flat Highway. 

However, there are several waste and water constraints, and temporary solutions are proposed if there is no capacity at the Army Bay treatment plant, when the staged development is ready. On the wider integrated transport front, the PPC does not propose any updates to the Silverdale interchange and no upgrades to the public transport network. Given that the bus service along Dairy Flat Highway from the Silverdale park ‘n’ ride is not even hourly, it might be a struggle for workers to use the bus to get to work! Unfortunately, you can’t walk or cycle from the Silverdale park ‘n’ ride to Dairy Flat. All the supporting information on the PPC will be up on the council website shortly, and will be open for public submissions. There will be the opportunity for submitters to present their feedback to an independent hearing panel who will ultimately decide whether this PPC is successful.

The other big change for Dairy Flat is the newly consented 43-hectare surf park development at the old dairy farm on 1350 Dairy Flat Highway. 

This land had been earmarked as future industrial. The surf park includes a data centre, solar farm, extensive landscaping, restaurant, surf pool, visitor accommodation, walking, and cycling. The heat from the data centre warms the surf pool, making it suitable for year-round use and first heated wave pool in the world. Aventuur, the company behind the surf park development, and Spark, are hosting a community engagement event at the Dairy Flat Hall on Saturday, July 27, from 9am to noon. 

This is a very exciting and transformational development for the area and brings new opportunities and amenities. I know locals are keen to know more, and it will be great to have a team of experts to answer questions – I encourage the community to get along to this drop-in event. On a personal note, I think the surf park will be a huge uplift for the area. It is well-designed and planned with a rural aesthetic. Hopefully, this will encourage better development in area going forward.