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The proposed plan change area.Arvida has lodged an appeal with the Environment Court against what it calls Auckland Council’s “flawed decision” to reject its private plan change request to rezone 140 hectares of land north of Warkworth.The retirement village operator wants to develop 198 units and an aged care facility for seniors on 22 hectares at Paddison Farm, but it was the potential for a further 2200 homes on the remaining land that caused council to throw the proposal out last month (MM, Mar 3).
Councillors said the proposal was premature, speculative, sprawling and there was no funding for infrastructure.However, Arvida chief executive Jeremy Nicoll said the decision to block the request was unjustified, and said the only formal grounds for rejection raised by council planners under the Resource Management Act did not apply.“We believe they did not follow due process,” he said.
“While we would prefer to avoid an appeal to the Environment Court, which will cost ratepayers money, we are left with no choice due to the council’s flawed decision.”Nicoll said the only reason Arvida was seeking a rezoning of the wider area around its retirement community was to allow “a more comprehensive, coordinated approach, rather than piecemeal, ad hoc development”.“At a wider level, the assertion our proposal would promote ‘urban sprawl’ fails to recognise that Warkworth is already a growing population hub, at the end of a new motorway, with developments completed or underway.
”Nicoll says all the matters raised by councillors were addressed in Arvida’s plan change application and the request should have been allowed to go through the standard public hearing process.“All we want is a fair hearing where the facts of our proposal can be heard and tested by a panel of independent planning commissioners.”.
