Big housing development faces bigger obstacles

A major urban housing project is on the cards for South Auckland, but its location is raising the eyebrows of experts and locals alike.

The Alfriston Village Project hopes to combat the Auckland housing crisis by raising a new neighbourhood of homes in a rural area that faces a lack of infrastructure and inadequate roading.

The project is planned in tandem between Windermere Holdings, a private South Auckland development company and Kāinga Ora, who have each purchased adjacent pieces of land on Mill Road, Alfriston at a busy roundabout where a primary school is situated.

Fraser Thomas Surveying director Gary Blyth says the biggest hurdle faced by Windermere Holdings and Kāinga Ora will be getting infrastructure to the site to develop it.

“I don’t know where the wastewater is coming from, there’s nothing within kilometres of the site. They need to talk to Watercare and Auckland City pronto.”

Blyth also says the land on which the estimated 1,300 home development is planned is not zoned correctly for urban development and rezoning could be quite some time away.

“The Auckland Future Urban Land Supply Strategy document states the timing to rezone that area is 2040.”

The two parties aim to create an urban village complete with high-quality community amenities and more infrastructure at a location where a busy roundabout and a primary school are located, the latter being an existing issue for local residents.

Robyn Muir lives a few hundred metres from the development land and says unless a substantial improvement to infrastructure is made, she doesn’t know how it could possibly work.

“The whole region has become so heavily congested with commuters. I’ve witnessed multiple crashes at the school roundabout and Alfriston Road is in no condition to have more traffic on it”, says Muir.

Muir also sits on the board of trustees at Alfriston Primary School and is concerned that there is no easy way to increase the population of the school if it had to cater to many more students.

“Given the space that’s at the school, there is nowhere to go but up. They will either have to raise the buildings or buy more land,” she said.

Papakura Local Board member Felicity Auva’a says the Board is expected to learn more about the project at a workshop next week and hear public submissions, but she and others think the project is “a terrible idea.”

“There is definite rumour-mongering and concern coming from the public,” she said.

A forum for locals to voice their concerns about the project scheduled last Thursday was postponed. The public can have their say by submitting a feedback form on the Alfriston Village Project website.