Website updated May 3, 2018
This website is intended to act as a resource for those who wish to understand and track the consent application for the proposed commercial development at 83 Millar Rd. It contains the current status of the application and provides downloadable copies of all related public documents plus summaries and analysis of the proposal. The authors of this website oppose the development for the reasons indicated at the bottom of this page, but aim to support our position with good data and analysis and let you decide for yourselves.
This website will have more information added as it becomes available. If you support this opposition or would like to become more involved just email or ring us. Info on the contact page.
Status of Consent Application as of May 3, 2018
On December 18 2017, Hastings District Council made the decision to do a ‘limited notification’ of the 83 Millar Road consent application. The 43 page report is very comprehensive and can be downloaded here. Given the scale of the development and extent of effect, the council decided that a total of 23 properties are to be notified if the application proceeds. The owners of these will then have the opportunity to submit detailed written opposition and present at the hearing. (There is a list of these properties on the last page of the report).
HOWEVER. To proceed with the consent application process the applicant (Greg) needs to provide HDC with a $5000 deposit. So far, while it is now nearing 5 months since the council decision, Greg has not provided this deposit and the consent application remains on hold. We understand from Edward Visser’s recent post in the Tuki Tuki Community Facebook page, that Greg still intends to proceed with the application.
Once the deposit is made then HDC will properly ‘notify’ the owners of these properties, and this will trigger the next steps in the process – i.e. 20 working days to put in written submissions, followed by a hearing.
Just to be clear – there is a very high degree of opposition to this development by the nearby community. Our understanding is that with perhaps one or two exceptions, almost all of the affected properties strongly oppose the very large development that Greg has applied to build, and intend to put in written objections once notification occurs.
History of correspondence between applicant and council is below, in reverse chronological order…..
PDF’s of these items as well the full original application are available on the DOCUMENTS page.
On December 18th, HDC complete their detailed report and make the decision to do a limited notification. HDC sends a letter to Greg indicating this decision and requesting the $5000 deposit if he wishes to proceed.
On December 15th, Stantec provided a minor addition to the traffic report, indicating that while delays at at various Tuki Tuki intersections would likely be minor there were safety issues that would need to be addressed and more traffic analysis performed for an accurate assessment.
On December 13, Greg submitted to HDC a set of amendments to the consent application. These were minor amendments to the operational plan, basically just lipstick on a pig. The physical plant is still the same.
On December 11, Gregs acoustic engineer Hegley, submitted to HDC a response to the peer review of the acoustics.
On December 7, the peer review company Stantec added some clarification about traffic, indicating that they would recommend a full upgrade to Millar Road if the proposed development went ahead.
On November 23 HDC received the Styles Group peer review of the acoustic section of the consent application.
In October the Hastings District Council (HDC) received the additional information from the applicant and also the peer review of traffic . Also, HB Regional Council commented on the water and wastewater aspect.
On Monday August 28th Hastings District Council sent to the applicant a letter requesting further information in the areas of acoustics, traffic, and operations with 15 days to respond. Later in the week two other letters were sent indicating that HDC intend to commission peer reviews of the acoustic and traffic reports of the application.
On Monday September 4 the applicant sent an email to HDC indicating that they anticipate supplying the additional information to HDC by September 29.
On September 6 the applicant agreed to the peer review of the traffic assessment he provided, but requested that he be allowed to provide a revised acoustic assessment before it was peer reviewed.
On September 28 the applicant requested an extension to Oct 6 to provide the additional information.
On October 9th the additional information was received by HDC and it has been posted on the public file.
On October 12th the applicant approved HDC proceeding with acoustic review based on the Oct 9th document.
On October 17th HDC received the Stantec peer review of the traffic. On Oct 19 HDC asked if applicant wants to respond to that review.
Sending a Letter
Although the notification decision has been taken, if you are not on the list of properties to be notified, and have not put in a letter of objection, you should still do so. It all helps. For more information on the consent process and sending a letter download our two page informational flyer or our single page things to consider for your letter . You can also download a sample letter to HDC.
The informational flyer is also a useful thing to email to others who may not know of the proposed development. (or you can email a link to this website).
Snapshot of the Proposed Development
Below is a graphical summary of the proposed development showing the location immediately adjacent to the center of the Tuki Tuki Special Character Zone and the key facilities proposed. Note that the path for the traffic cuts directly through the center of the character zone.
The proposed development is large. The total site has accommodation for over 100 people in 50 bedrooms spread across multiple one and two storied buildings. The upper site has a 150 sq m restaurant + bar plus 200 sq m of outdoor entertaining space plus a gym and spa plus a swimming pool. The lower site has a 400 sq m winery with its own bar, plus a significant sports facility of 200 sq m gym plus tennis court plus 25m multi lane lap pool. There are also 136 parking spaces. The traffic appendix of consent proposal indicates that traffic along Millar Road will rise from its current trip count of ~70 per day, to about 450 per day – a factor of about 7 increase. (This is probably a conservative number and in fact the acoustic appendix indicates 520 vehicles per day)
We are still working to come up with a good comparison but as a rough guide, in terms of capacity, this is about equivalent to Porters Hotel plus Mangapapa plus Peak Fitness Health Facility plus Havelock North swimming complex plus a winery and tasting room. (The restaurant and bar at Porters hotel is only 130 sq m.)
There is more parking than at the Havelock North New World, which has about 125 spaces (from Joll Rd to the National Bank on the corner of the building complex).
The last council estimate of existing traffic along Tuki Tuki Road is about 450 vehicles per day. So this single development would cause roughly a doubling in Tuki Tuki road traffic, and Millar Road would carry as much traffic as Tuki Tuki Rd does today.
Or another comparison… on a daily basis more people will move in and out of 83 Millar road than at present move in and out of the entire Tuki Tuki Special Character Zone.
For more detailed information and analysis of the proposed development see the page THE PROPOSAL
Why we oppose this proposed development
This is a very large commercial development with very significant accommodation capacity and major entertainment facilities with stated intention to operate it for conferences, sports teams, and functions. It is immediately adjacent to the Tuki Tuki Special Character Zone and the access to the site is Millar Road which is a single lane 3m wide asphalt road that cuts directly through the center of the character zone.
We believe this large scale commercial development is absolutely contrary to the quiet rural lifestyle of the Tuki Tuki special character zone. Nothing about this development enhances the lives of those of us living in the neighbourhood. To the contrary, the traffic, noise, light pollution, and water use would all have significant negative impacts on our experience living in this area.