‘Send them a message’: Auckland councillors reject retirement village despite lawsuit risk

Tuesday, 11 March 2025

While the Government moves to encourage greenfield development, Auckland’s councillors have made the “risky” decision to knock back a developer as a warning to the industry.

“This is not about town planning, it’s about speculation,” Mayor Wayne Brown said at a recent council meeting.

They were discussing a plan-change application by US private equity-owned retirement village developer Arvida which would rezone 149 hectares of future urban and farm land near Warkworth in the city’s rural north for mixed housing.

“The sheer scale of this is ridiculous … It’s an area the size of Manukau,” said Brown.

Staff told councillors that infrastructure to service the bulk of the land hadn’t been planned for another 10 years, while around 29 hectares of the application area was classed as “highly productive” land.

That could give the council legal grounds to reject the application, staff said, but they told councillors “on balance” it would be safer to allow it to proceed to a hearing before independent commissioners.

“It’s almost inevitable that if the plan change is rejected there would be an appeal to the Environment Court,” they said.

Brown didn’t agree.

“We don’t really want to be making recommendations because you’re scared to go to court … It’s not a very good reason,” he said.

Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson asked what it would cost if the council was dragged before a judge. The response: “I’m loathe to say a figure … [but] it’s certainly in the tens of thousands.”

Councillor Richard Hills acknowledged the hesitancy in the room around rejecting plan changes - he referred to an example where “Simpson got the numbers” to vote down a plan change in Ōrākei and the council ultimately lost an appeal and had to pay legal costs.

Brown agreed the council seemed to have had a bad track record with such legal proceedings.

“Why cant we sue the Environment Court judges?” he asked. Bemused staff told him it wasn’t possible.

“I’m very grumpy about that,” said Brown.

Councillor Shane Henderson supported the mayor, saying the city couldn’t afford not to reject the application.

“We need to be sending a message to the development community that we simply cannot support sprawl.

“Why do we bother with future development strategy if it is going to be routinely ignored whenever it’s convenient for profits?”

Speaking as a director on the board of Auckland Transport, councillor Chris Darby said there was absolutely no funding to upgrade adjacent roads to the proposed development.

“In terms of legal risk - the real cost, the real risk is waving this through now and dealing with the infrastructure deficit which is probably in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”

During debate, councillor John Watson said a decision knocking back Arvida would “send a signal” to developers that the rural fringe wasn’t “open slather”.

Councillor Wayne Walker added: “I’m sure there are many developers at the moment weighing these matters up.”

The motion to reject carried 16 to 3 with Simpson abstaining.

In a statement, Arvida chief executive Jeremy Nicoll told the Sunday Star-Times he was “surprised and disappointed” by the decision.

Asked if the company would go to court, a spokesperson said “we are considering our options”.

But, in Mayor Brown’s view, the council had done Arvida a favour.

“Rejecting it would the best thing we could do for them because they are going to lose a stack of cash.

“It’s a classic case of being way ahead of the market … I’ve been there, and there is not a lot of growth in that town.

“There will be very few of us still alive when this is covered in houses.”

Nicoll said his company had more faith in the township and remained “committed”.

“We consider there are genuine opportunities for growth in Warkworth and we hope to invest in this fantastic area.”

Meanwhile, a day after the application was rejected, Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced measures to encourage councils to free up land at the edges of cities.

He says the country is experiencing “housing utopia whiplash”.

“[Some say] don’t put intensification here, we need to protect wooden villas, while others say ‘don’t do greenfield development, it contributes to more emissions’.

“But if you can’t go up or out, you can’t go anywhere.”

Bishop said he would be making it easier for councils to set specific development-focused targeted rates and would introduce new development levies.

He said the current system had made “existing residents resistant to growth” due to its impact on rates. For example, in Drury it’s estimated that $330 million in growth infrastructure costs will be met by ratepayers.

“It is not surprising that existing ratepayers mobilise against new housing when they’re required to pick up the tab for the infrastructure required for it.

“But, these constraints also created a scorching hot land and housing market driven by artificial scarcity.”

Arvida’s Jeremy Nicoll said the company was “very supportive” of the announcement.

Mayor Wayne Brown, meanwhile, suggested at the meeting that Arvida return to council with a more streamlined application.

“If they want to a build a [retirement] healthcare facility why don’t they apply?” he said.

“I have a sneaky suspicion they want to flog off [the upzoned land] at a higher value, which is not going to help anyone up there.

“I’m firmly rejecting this and waiting them to come back with something that is to do with what they do for a living.”

Councillor Maurice Williamson interjected: “Old people have rights.”

“The right to die,” responded Brown.

Correction: Arvida has been bought by a US private equity firm. An earlier version of the story said it was publicly listed. (Amended: March 11, 9am)

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