Contact: homebushresidents@gmail.com
Homebush Road Residents Group
Help us save the Ngauranga green gateway to Wellington.
Locals fight developer to keep bush on hills
By Sophie Speer
Bush reserve above the Ngauranga Gorge, part of Wellington city's northern gateway, is under threat from a proposed housing development.
Last week residents of Homebush Rd in Khandallah made oral submissions against a District Plan change which would rezone a block of land currently zoned as Open Plan B to allow a subdivision.
The land is privately owned and the current owner has applied to council for a plan change for the construction of residential housing.
The block of land, perched on the spur of the hill above the Ngauranga Gorge , contains regenerating native bush, some of which has been planted and maintained by the owners of the bordering properties, and is a valuable habitat for many species of the city 's birds and insect life.
It also forms an important landfall for birds flying from Matiu-Somes Island to the mainland.
Resident Nick Dixie says the re-zoning of the land will result in a loss of open space amenity for the city that can never be re-placed.
The council has a district plan which allows for urban growth and development in specific areas and piecemeal changes to that plan which encroach onto the city's green belt should not be permitted, he says. "How can the council protect other similarly held areas of reserve around the city if it allows the change of zone. It may be just one small bite but a number of small bites of the pie still mean it's all gone," he says.
The Homebush Rd residents are urging the council to consider their responsibility to preserve the natural environment as part of the city's heritage for future generations. The land in question is part of a much larger parcel stretching from the hill behind the Ngauranga Gorge along the hillsides bordering the Old Hutt Rd towards Onslow Road. Much of the hill is covered at present by a pine plantation planted in the late 1970s.
The current owner of the land, Mr Eyal Aharoni of Prime Property Group, purchased it in 2006. He is in dispute with residents of Spenmoor St in Newlands where a proposed subdivision of 40 homes has tripled in size to more than 120.
The Homebush Rd residents are concerned that a similar scenario to that may develop for this proposal. Mr Aharoni is also part of a big-spending campaign, Rongotai Revived, righting council plan changes there. The hearing was held late last week and the decision has been reserved.