Neighbour puts stake in the ground against 'towering' Summerset village

Thursday, 22 April 2021

A former berry farm is cleared in January to make way for a three-storey retirement village on Blenheim’s Old Renwick Rd, but a neighbour past the southern boundary fears the loss of privacy.

A retired doctor has refused to provide written consent for a retirement village to be built next door, in a bid to preserve his rural refuge of 40 years.

Summerset bought the former Jones Berry Fruits property on Blenheim’s northwestern edge in 2019, and filed a resource consent application in December to build a $125 million village with 267 villas, cottages and units over four years, tipped to have a tangible effect on the town’s congested housing market.

Six neighbours have since been identified as affected parties by the Marlborough District Council. If Summerset could get written consent from all six, they could skip the notification period and go straight to the council assessment and decision.

However, one neighbour would not give his approval, and wrote a pre-notification submission to the council in March, asking Summerset to change parts of its proposal.

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The consent application reveals the rest home's master plans, with stormwater ponds in the southeastern green area.

Southern neighbour Dr John Hedley bought 1.82 hectares from the Jones family in 1981, which included a farm cottage built in 1904, which Hedley and his family restored and added to.

Green blocks indicate the “Urban Residential Growth Zone”, where Blenheim is likely to expand, provided landowners are prepared to sell and developers prepared to buy.

Over the years the family acquired and developed 11.2ha of vineyards in the area. With its private entrance lined with mature trees, the property became a refuge from Hedley’s “pressured professional existence” in the medical field, he said in his submission.

Now retired, Hedley did most of the grape work himself, in the vines between his home and the Summerset property.

“We need our privacy, and do not relish providing rural views for others,” Hedley said in his submission.

“It’s our intention to remain living in this house until we die.”

Hedley this week declined to comment further, saying his submission sufficiently covered his thoughts on the proposal.

Environment Minister David Parker explains how the Resource Management Act will be replaced by three new laws. (Video first published in February 2021)

Summerset intended to put stormwater ponds and a sewer pump station in its southeast corner, and stormwater pipes along the east side of Hedley’s property. That work would likely “butcher” his private laneway entrance and require the removal of trees, Hedley’s submission said.

His north-facing house would also lose its uninterrupted views, and instead would face the Summerset buildings.

A 2m-tall fence of netting, put up in 2004, would need to either remain or be replaced with a solid fence, and Hedley would need to approve the material and colour, and supervise and direct the work, he said.

The height of Summerset’s proposed main building, at 14.9m, was excessive, he said.

“Such a towering structure will dominate the (to be) residential neighbourhood, and curtail the views. This is Roselands, not a utilitarian location, 10m should be the maximum.”

Hedley’s submission was sent to the council of his own accord on March 12.

Submissions were normally received after the council decided if a proposal needed to be notified, either publicly, so anyone could submit, or limited, so affected parties could submit.

Notifying a proposal could be skipped if an applicant got written approval from all affected parties.

Summerset’s consultant emailed the council on March 29 asking to put the application on hold while it was “still liaising” with the owner of one property, trying to get written approval.

However, the council told Summerset it was going to notify the consent, on a limited basis, on Tuesday next week, with a submissions period until May 26.

Summerset general manager of development Aaron Smail said the company had no concerns about the project going to notification, as it was a standard part of the consent process.

He said he would reserve comment until any formal submissions were received.

“We have formed good working relationships with most of our future neighbours and the council, and regard the planning process as going well. However, we respect that people may have concerns, and we’ll gladly work through the democratic process with them,” Smail said.

“We remain excited about creating a wonderful, comprehensive-care retirement community that older Blenheim residents can be proud to live in.”

During construction, Summerset villages usually provided direct employment for more than 200 people and indirect employment for “many more”, he said.

“There will also be up to 50 new permanent jobs in the retirement village once it’s fully operational, from nurses to gardeners to village managers.”