When Jill Gordon and Ross Thomas first found out about a plan to rezone their land to industrial they were caught completely off guard.
They live on a 5.37ha block on Springs Rd. Their neighbours Lynn and Carol Townsend, Rick and Diane Fraser, and Malcolm and Lynn Stewart are trying to have the land around them rezoned for a 27ha business park.
The group argues Lincoln needs industrial land, with no land in the town currently zoned for it.
They say a business park will provide employment and business opportunities.
On December 1, 2020, Gordon attended a meeting with the Stewarts, Fraser, Townsend and consultant Fiona Aston to discuss a rezoning submission to the District Plan review, which involved subdividing the land into large lot residential. Gordon said Townsend invited them to discuss the potential rezoning of the four properties.
“They talked about how many houses they could harvest from the land,” Gordon told Selwyn Times.
At the meeting, Gordon said she and Thomas did not want to be to be involved at their stage of life, and did not want their block to be part of any rezoning.
She made it clear they did not want to subdivide their property.
But if in the future they changed their mind they would be happy with large lot residential sections as it would be most in keeping with the existing land use, she said. Townsend’s account differs.
He said Gordon and Thomas were happy with the rezoning but did not want to subdivide their property.
“They were quite happy to come along for the ride,” Townsend said.
Gordon disputes that: “We said quite clearly we did not want to be involved.”
Gordon told the group she and Thomas did not want to be involved and they would not put any money towards it.
Townsend told Selwyn Times he and the Stewarts are funding the submission. Gordon said no mention of industrial zoning was brought up at the meeting.
The land is zoned rural. Eight days after the meeting the Townsends, Frasers and Stewarts put in a submission into the council’s District Plan review – which Gordon and Thomas say they were unaware of. Townsend disputes this.
The submission, which has now changed, presented three options – 39ha of land rezoned to all residential, all industrial, or a mixture of the two.
Townsend told Selwyn Times the desire was to have a mix of the two split down the middle by transmission lines which run across the block.
Fast forward nearly two years, Gordon and Thomas had a visit from Townsend who asked if he could have their property surveyed.
Thomas did not think much of it and agreed.
But when Gordon found out later that day, she and Thomas asked Townsend for more specifics and why the surveyors needed to look at their property.
Townsend said he was looking at options for his property, which included using it for commercial businesses.
Gordon and Thomas allowed the survey, under the impression if anything was going to happen Townsend would notify them.
Townsend told the Selwyn Times he could not recall the details of this conversation but did remember having a survey team at the property around that time.
He thought he showed them a copy of the plan. Gordon said no plan was shown, and the submission was not mentioned. When the survey team arrived and started taking photos, which included the inside of the couple’s shed, Gordon became concerned, so she went onto the council website and found the December 8, 2020 submission.
“I started searching on the council proposed District Plan submissions and that’s where I found it, I found the plan,” Gordon said.
“We were gobsmacked.” Gordon said the group should have told them about the plan and submission.
“I know people can do it legally but actually I find it morally repugnant that people can actually do that and not pick up the phone.”
Townsend told the Selwyn Times he had no obligation to inform Gordon and Thomas.
“I reject all such comments because I was not morally obliged to do anything,” Townsend said.
Gordon said they had got along with the Townsends, Frasers and Stewarts, but that changed when she discovered the December 8 submission.
Now Gordon will not talk to any of them.
Thomas will only speak to them about shared water supply matters.
When Gordon discovered the December 8 submission it was too late to object to it. So she emailed the council expressing concern and opposition.
The council responded the same day, acknowledged their opposition and added it to a report being prepared for a hearings panel which was due to consider the submission in February this year.
The council also informed the group consultant, Aston Consultants, about Gordon and Thomas’ opposition.
But by early February this year, just weeks before the hearing, the plan had changed significantly.
The group had amended the original submission. Gordon and Thomas’ property was removed from the rezoning.
Three blocks owned by the Long family along Tancreds Rd were added and all of the land would be zoned industrial.
This became known as option B, the 27ha business park currently being appealed to the Environment Court.
Townsend told Selwyn Times the changes were made because of the objections from Gordon and Thomas and Crown owned research institutes Plant and Food Research and AgResearch.
The research farms provided written evidence opposing the submission prior to the hearing taking place.
The research farms were concerned about not being able to use part of their land due to a 1km setback between residential and intensive rural activity.
The setback is not required for industrial. The hearings panel sat on February 21 and considered options.
Faulks Investments, developers of the upmarket subdivision Barton Fields where the development would back onto, also opposed the application.
In August the hearings panel released its decision rejecting the group bid. The group has appealed the decision to the Environment Court. A hearing date is yet to be set.
Margo Perpick, a lawyer who specialises in resource management and environmental law, told Selwyn Times depending on how many expert witnesses are called and the length of the process, the appeal could cost up to $100,000.
The cost though would be worth it, if the appeal was successful. Real estate agent Brendan Shefford said industrial land in the district is valued about $380 per sq m.
Despite Faulks Investments opposing the submission at the hearings panel, it is not fighting the appeal in the Environment Court.
Faulks Investments managing director Tony Faulks would not tell the Selwyn Times why. Along with Gordon and Thomas, AgResearch and Plant and Food Research, three more parties are opposing the appeal to the Environment Court.
Fletcher Residential is building Greenstead subdivision, along Tancreds Rd which when finished will back up onto the proposed business park. Fletcher Residential representative Julie Comfort said Fletcher had no issue with the original plan for the residential rezoning.
The submission did not include the block that backs onto the Fletcher development and was added as part of the business park proposal.
“But they now are seeking to have it as an industrial. They (Fletcher Residential) are little concerned by what might be there and about the process.”
PGG Wrightson Seeds is also opposing the appeal because its Kimihia research farm is on the opposite side of Tancreds Rd, and is arguing may be affected by the development.
Barton Fields resident Jason Scott lives on Benashet Dr, which backs onto the proposed development. He is also opposing the appeal because he is concerned about storm water running off onto his property.
Scott only became aware of the development after reading about the appeal in Selwyn Times in October.
The hearing panel said in its decision to reject the bid there is no need for industrial land in Lincoln.
“The rezoning sought would inappropriately extend Lincoln’s urban form by extending it beyond the township boundary to the west of Barton Fields and would therefore not contribute to a well-functioning urban environment,” the panel’s decision said.
“Ninety per cent of traffic would enter the site from Springs Rd. The higher volume of movements at the Springs Rd/ Boundary Rd intersection would increase the risk of crashes.
The panel was not persuaded the land in the submission was not highly productive.
The land the group wants to develop has a mixture of soil classifications of LUC one to three, which are protected from development under the National Policy Statement – Highly Productive Land.
Barton Fields residents canvased by Selwyn Times said they were unaware of the development, with others like Scott only finding out about the proposed development by reading Selwyn Times.
“A development of this nature will seriously affect the amenity of the adjacent residents through possible visual (despite proposed setbacks), noise, odour, and traffic congestion on already stressed infrastructure,” Geayley said in his letter.
It triggered a response from Townsend, who replied with a letter on November 22, saying Barton Fields residents had “moat syndrome.”
“I felt the need to respond to Mr Geayley’s concern about the new Business Park proposal (Selwyn Times November 8).
“Some 28 years ago we purchased 5ha of what had been part of the Barton Fields dairy farming enterprise.
“Our land had been planted out in various types of trees. This proved to be a non-viable venture so they were progressively removed.
“It has been however, a great place to raise two young sons.
“Then, along came a new residential subdivision next door, also on the Barton Fields land. All good. New residents arrive. All is happy!
“Until we want to develop our piece of land. Then, it seems, then moat syndrome applies. No one else is allowed in!
“Because of the transmission lines, parts of the property is not suitable for residential. Hence the reason for light commercial.
“Did Barton Fields new residents really expect the rural land to the west would stay that way forever?” Townsend wrote.
Whether Lincoln needs industrial-zoned land will be one the key factors to whether the appeal succeeds. In the previous District Plan, there was 11.4ha of industrial-zoned land on the far east side of Lincoln on Springs Rd.
The land was never developed and is now zoned for medium-density housing. Townsend argues Lincoln needs commercial zoning. That land was not suitable for companies, he said.
“Companies want a location where they can be visible,” Townsend told Selwyn Times.
He said his block offers that visibility. Townsend said since Selwyn Times published the article on the appeal in October, he had received three expressions of interest to use the land. “I’ve got three people now that want to buy land.
“The council says there is land over at Rolleston, but these people don’t want to go to Rolleston,” Townsend said.
Those interested were a storage company, a security fencing company, and a small warehouse for an online retailer.
Bayleys real estate agent Chris Jones said there may be a need in the future for industrial land as more subdivisions like the huge 1710 Lincoln South development on the east side of Lincoln is built, which was controversially signed off as part of the District Plan while it was under appeal by advocacy group Lincoln Voice.
At the time of the hearing in February, there was 235ha of vacant industrial land in the district, with almost all of it being in Rolleston.
The commissioners found there was a sufficient supply of industrial land in Selwyn and that there was no need of any in Lincoln.
Before the submission in 2020, Townsend said the idea had come up in conversation with Springs Ward councillor Grant Miller. The pair had discussed the need for industrial land in Lincoln and were of the view that there was a demand for industrial land in the town.
“In my view, there is a requirement for industrial land in Lincoln somewhere.
“We have a number of things like panel beaters, electricians, firewood, storage units.
“My personal view is that I don’t see Rolleston as servicing Lincoln. It is too far away,” Miller said.
Miller thought the proposed land would be a good spot. “I think it that is one of the suitable books within Lincoln.”
Springs Ward councillors Malcolm Lyall and Debra Hasson were not approached by Townsend, Fraser or Stewart. Both declined to comment on the need for industrial land in Lincoln, with both being involved in the District Plan process as hearing commissioners. Lyall was a commissioner in the February hearing.
