Community Town Hall Meeting - Infrastructure, Planning & Community Housing

3rd May 2023 - Turner Centre

The presentation slides are found here

Government Agency Housing Update

12th April 2023

Our Kerikeri has been working hard to understand the government's plans for public and affordable housing in Kerikeri since February. The organization has been communicating the concerns of the community and trying to influence the consent process. While the community and Our Kerikeri support the need for public and affordable homes, lack of meaningful consultation has resulted in many people feeling that change is being thrust upon them. Our Kerikeri believes change to communities, needs to be done WITH people and not TO them.  

Despite our efforts, Our Kerikeri and Vision Kerikeri were unable to persuade Council, Kāinga Ora, or the developers Gemscott King Ltd (Gemscott) to engage meaningfully with the community and listen to their concerns.  Whilst the Resource Consent applications have not yet been approved, all indications thus far suggest a lack of interest in making the Resource Consents publicly notified.  As a result, we believe that our only recourse is to bring the conversation to them.

We are inviting a panel of representatives including local MPS and political candidates, Kāinga Ora, The Ministry of Housing and Development, Gemscott, the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and senior Council staff, to respond to community concerns.

 THIS IS YOUR OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD. PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD.

As a reminder, our survey completed in January showed 70% of the community were not in support of the plans for intensive development of social housing in the commercial centre of town. The main concerns were lack of infrastructure, wrong location and the size and density of the development. 85% of the respondents supported development of a masterplan and 91% wanted more community consultation.

Gemscott King Limited, a development company based in Auckland, has submitted three separate applications for a total of 26 homes at 3 and 5 Clark Road and 4 King Street. The proposed developments consist of a cluster of 2-story townhouses and 3-story apartment buildings on 3 existing sections comprising approximately 3600m2 of land. The houses may accommodate between 80 to 100 people. These homes will be purchased by Kāinga Ora for public housing. In addition, Kāinga Ora has acquired 115 Kerikeri Road, which is located about 50 meters from the Gemscott cluster, for the development of further public housing. Kāinga Ora is actively seeking other land in the Kerikeri and Waipapa areas. Gemscott have also stated that they have been approached by other property owners in the Clark Road and King Street area.

Separately, the Ministry of Housing and Development (MHUD) has purchased land at Hall Road, which has an approved subdivision plan for 56 titles. The Ministry's plan is to develop a mix of public and affordable homes on this land.

Our Kerikeri sent a letter on 7th March to Mayor Moko Tepania, Deputy Mayor Kelly Stratford (who has the Housing portfolio), other elected members, and Council planning staff requesting public notification of the Clark Road/King Street applications and for the consent process to be slowed down to enable better planning.

On the 10th March a letter was also sent to Willow-Jean Prime, MP for Northland. Receipt of our letter was acknowledged but we have not received a formal reply at the time of this update.

On the 13th March, Our Kerikeri sent a formal submission letter to Jill Coyle (acting CEO of FNDC) and other Council planning staff outlining the community’s concerns and requesting the applications be notified. You can read this letter here. This letter details the concerns and include effects that are more than minor and beyond those stated in the application, potential costs to ratepayers for expanding and enhancing infrastructure, a lack of plans for wrap-around services to ensure social integration, inadequate parking and the impact on the future ring road, a lack of public transportation, and the consumption of land intended for commercial activities.

On March 30th, Deputy Mayor Kelly Stratford and Councillor Babe Kapa sent a formal response to Our Kerikeri's letter stating that Council staff did not consider public consultation necessary as they deemed the "consent application and infrastructure implications to be minimal." Our Kerikeri has challenged this opinion and sent follow-up questions.  Information in the Clark Road applications has revealed relevant details that were not considered by Gemscott or Council planners in their evaluation of effects, which could have been obtained from the public. For instance, they fail to recognize over two decades of planning for the CBD ring road onto Clark Road and significant investment by ratepayers for the purchase of land for this future project. If the development proceeds as planned, this future roading project is at risk of being frustrated. This suggests that both Gemscott and Council planning staff have missed critical information that could have easily been brought to light if the public had been involved. Our Kerikeri is concerned that other relevant information known by the public is being missed by Gemscott and Council staff, and therefore, public input is needed.  

Our Kerikeri held a meeting with elected members, Kāinga Ora, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (MHUD), Gemscott, and the Kerikeri Retirement Village on the 30th March to reinforce the concerns of the community and request more public engagement. We were told at that meeting by Gemscott and Kāinga Ora that there is no room for further engagement on the applications for Clark Road and King Street. Gemscott had already apologized to Ngāti Rehia for not engaging earlier on in the process. They offered the same apology to those present in the meeting.

As plans for 115 Kerikeri Road develop, Kāinga Ora has promised to engage more proactively with the community. Both Kāinga Ora and MHUD are interested in assisting the Council and the community with the development of a masterplan and spatial plan for Kerikeri, as well as a framework for implementing development contributions. However, Grant McCallum and Shane Jones have publicly expressed concerns about the approach government agencies, particularly Kāinga Ora, are using to implement central government-driven housing policy in small towns like Kerikeri. This approach appears to be used in other larger towns across the country, but with potentially adverse outcomes in vulnerable, small towns like Kerikeri. Compared to larger towns, Kerikeri is behind the eight ball with town planning and has very limited resources and funding to mitigate adverse outcomes, as well as inadequate infrastructure to cope. The worry is that any adverse outcomes, resulting from poorly planned approaches, are likely to be broad, enduring, and irreversible.

To shed some light on the current situation, the historical failures of planning, and insights into how things can be improved, Rod Brown and Jo Lumkong of Vision Kerikeri have published articles in their latest newsletter available on the Vision Kerikeri website.

We are not ruling out any options. It is likely that our community will require legal counsel to contest decisions made by local and central government organizations. We may also consider launching a petition, but our next steps will be determined by the outcome of the Town Hall meeting.

We look forward to seeing you on the 3rd May 2023, 5.30pm at the Turner Centre