Birchs Village Ltd is appealing to the Environment Court for its 37 ha, 400 home subdivision on Birchs Rd to be allowed.
The plan was rejected in a private plan change (PC79), and the District Plan review, due to the land being highly productive and Prebbleton not needing any more capacity.
For the subdivision to be built the land will need to be rezoned from rural to residential.
Opposing the appeal are Birchs Rd residents John and Susan Sheaf, and Thomas and Helen Fraser.
“The land is not connected to the Prebbleton village. If the land was developed to housing it would create a peninsula to Prebbleton village,” the Sheafs said in their letter to the Environment Court.
“The plan change hearing PC79 clearly concluded that there is sufficient section available within Prebbleton for at least the next 20 years.
The Frasers echoed similar comments in their letter to the court.
Birchs Village argues the site is strategically located across the road from Kakaha Park and it would bring the new reserve into the township.
“Providing land for future residential use increases housing resources leading to an expanded social and economic base for the strategically located rural township. Servicing connections currently exist north along Birchs Road allowing for extension to existing infrastructure and services,” a Birchs Village spokesperson said in its appeal to the Environment Court.
