September 15, 2016
No Love for Shelly development
A former trustee of the Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust claims a plan to develop a former defence base on the Mirimar Peninsula is sale by stealth.
The trust and developer Ian Cassels Wellington Company today lodged a resource consent to build 300 dwellings at Shelly Bay under the Special Housing Areas Act, which allows for intensification and fast track planning, as well as requiring some affordable housing.
Catherine Love, who was on the trust in 2009 when it bought the land for $13 million, says the joint venture allows the gradual sale of sections to the developer.
She says that's contrary to a vote earlier this year, when the trust failed to win the 75 percent support it needed to sell the loss-making site to Mr Cassels.
She says it's a repeat of history.
"The model that the Wellington Company is using is very reminiscent of what the New Zealand did back in 1839 where they planned a housing development that had supposedly 10 percent reserved for Maori, that's the very small proportion of social housing that might be included," Dr Love says.
But Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust chief executive Jason Fox says the joint venture to develop 300 dwellings at Shelly Bay is good news for the iwi and good news for Wellington.
He says the joint venture is the safest way for Taranaki Whanui to develop the site that has been sitting idle for too long.
It will involve a mix of sales, leased and retaining some land in compliance with the trust deed.
Mr Fox says the land was bought at the instigation of former trust chair Sir Ngatata Love, Catherine Love's father, with the intention of developing it in partnership with filmmaker Sir Peter Jackson, but the deal went sour.
"His partner Lorraine Skiffington went around there, asked sir peter Jackson for a $750,000 commission, They turned around and said 'You've got to be stupid.' At that point Shelly Bay completely ground to a halt and there was no plan B at the time from those particular individuals," say Jason Fox.
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