‘It would be completely destroyed’: Villagers face third battle over 850-home subdivision

Sunday, 28 June 2026

Locals fear a proposed development of 800 houses in Ōhoka is in the wrong place and will add to flooding issues in the area.

Carter Group wants to build about 850 homes on farmland in Ōhoka, north of Christchurch.

The proposal was rejected twice by the Waimakariri District Council before entering the Government's fast-track process.

Residents fear the development would change the village’s rural character and strain roads, water and other infrastructure.

Carter Group says technical experts have addressed concerns and the fast-track process does not guarantee approval.

For generations, a small rural settlement in North Canterbury has been a place where families moved to escape the city life.

Nestled among farmland about 30 minutes north of Christchurch, Ōhoka, in the Waimakariri District, is known for its lifestyle properties and close-knit community.

Children ride ponies to school, neighbours know each other and residents say the village’s greatest attractions have always been its history and peaceful character.

Now an 850-home subdivision, proposed for the area by the Carter Group, Christchurch’s biggest development company, is going through the Government's fast-track legislation.

Resident Róisín Magee says Ōhoka would be “completely destroyed” by the development.

Despite the pressing need for more affordable housing in New Zealand, locals fear the development would alter the character of the village, increase flooding risks and overwhelm local infrastructure.

A particular bugbear is that the development was twice rejected before the fast-track process was introduced.

In 2023, independent commissioners recommended that the Waimakariri District Council decline Carter’s application for a private plan change. The council accepted that recommendation.

In 2025, Carter made a submission to allow the development as part of the proposed district plan which was also declined by the council.

‘My children ride their ponies to school’

Róisín Magee and her husband settled in Ōhoka almost nine years ago, drawn to its rural lifestyle, open spaces and close-knit community.

She fears those qualities would disappear if the development proceeds.

“It would be destroyed. It would be completely destroyed,” she said.

“My children ride their ponies to school. An 850-home development, with all the extra traffic that comes with it, changes all of that in a heartbeat.”

Magee says residents are not opposed to growth, but believe the proposal is simply too large for a historic rural settlement.

“This isn’t about saying nobody should ever build houses here. The issue is that this is the wrong place for a development of this scale. There are other locations that can accommodate housing growth without fundamentally changing the character of an established rural village.”

Magee says there’s no public transport in the settlement.

“Most people would have to rely on cars for absolutely everything. The roads are already under pressure, we're on private water supplies and this is still very much a rural community. The infrastructure that would be needed doesn't exist.”

Mayor: ‘Council will continue to oppose it’

Waimakariri mayor Dan Gordon said the council still opposes the development.

“We have made that clear from the start. The proposal has been turned down on multiple occasions. The council will continue to oppose it.

“The view of the council is that projects that have already been decided on and declined in district plans or other Resource Management Act processes should not be eligible for consideration by fast-track,” he said.

“We will be making a submission once again (for a third time) that this is our view.”

‘Swamp country’

Mike Meade with his wife, Jill, and Tilly, the cocker spaniel.

Long-time resident Bruce Leslie grew up on the farm where Carter wants to build much of the subdivision. He said his family farmed about 260 acres for decades before selling the property in the early 1980s.

The 60-year-old said his biggest issue was the land itself.

“It's basically swamp country. There's an underlying clay structure. It doesn't drain well. There are natural springs running through it and in wet years you get what we used to call ‘undercurrents’, where the groundwater pushes up through the soil.”

Leslie says while current conditions are relatively dry, the area’s groundwater fluctuates dramatically depending on seasonal rainfall.

Ōhoka resident Mark Leggett had to get some floorboards of his house changed after floodwaters entered his property in 2023.

“If we get rain in the foothills, our groundwater levels rise about two weeks later. The quantity of rain depends on how high it gets.”

Losing ‘peace and quiet’ of rural life

Floodwater entered Mark Leggett's property in 2023.

Mike Meade moved to Ōhoka about six years ago for what he hoped would be a peaceful retirement.

The biggest impact, Meade fears, would be on the everyday lifestyle residents moved there to enjoy.

“You’d go from walking through open spaces to walking through hundreds of houses. It won’t be the village we know.

“Why do we need another satellite town outside of Christchurch when the council has apparently planned adequately for other areas around the district.”

‘It’s exhausting’

Local Mark Leggett had to get some of the floorboards in his house replaced after floodwater entered his property in 2023.

He says residents have spent years preparing submissions, attending hearings and responding to complex planning documents, only to find themselves fighting the same proposal again.

“It's exhausting,” he said. “You spend a lot of time responding to these processes, putting together submissions, and then even after the proposal is declined, it just comes back in another form.

“How many times does an organisation get a bite at the cherry before they get the answer they want?” Leggett asked.

“The development would build 850 houses and bring a population of over 2000 people - size of Oxford, a town - immediately adjacent to a village of 300.”

Concerns have been addressed: Developer

A Carter Group spokesperson said the proposed development would deliver about 850 homes in stages over several years, rather than hundreds of houses at once.

The proposal also includes a neighbourhood centre, parks and open spaces, walking and cycling connections, and land set aside for a retirement village.

Responding to residents' concerns about flooding and infrastructure, the spokesperson said those issues had been extensively assessed by engineers, transport specialists and other technical experts over several years.

“We understand people have concerns about roads, water, wastewater, stormwater and flooding. Those are important issues, and they are exactly the issues that have been examined in detail,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said the earlier proposal was not declined because of flooding, water supply, wastewater or other servicing issues.

“The independent commissioners accepted that the development could be serviced, that flooding effects could be appropriately managed, that the landscape effects were acceptable and that the proposal would provide significant ecological enhancements.”

According to the Carter Group, the key issue identified by the commissioners related to transport capacity under the planning legislation in force at the time.

“Since then, further work has been completed on transport and intersection upgrades.”

The spokesperson said the fast-track process is not a guarantee of approval.

“It is an independent process where all of the evidence will be considered by an expert panel operating at arm's length from both the Government and the council.

“Like any major development, the proposal will only proceed if that panel is satisfied it meets the requirements of the legislation.”