In case anyone was in any doubt about the direction that New Zealand's Coalition of Chaos will continue to take if it gets another term – in February, GMP Environmental, a subsidiary of Greymouth Petroleum, donated $100k each to the coalition members – National, NZ First and ACT.
Here in Canterbury, Williams Corporation followed Wolfbrook's lead by donating $58k to the National Party, a move that political cynics will view as being in anticipation of their future developments being fast tracked and green lighted.
Like the environmentally bonkers 1500-section residential development planned on Gresson's Road just south of Waikuku which gobbles up 140+ hectares of productive farmland and will create even more traffic chaos on SH1.
Well, heaven forbid anyone with an advanced case of Developer Entitlement Syndrome should have to delay the treatment for the condition which comes in the form of making huge profits out of yet more unsustainable, car-dependent, satellite developments.
It seems that the Gresson's Road fast track process was enabled by Waimakariri District Council having rezoned the land residential – a decision which flies in the face of common sense and WDC's own claims to want to protect productive rural land.
I'm told that WDC has carved up proportionately more of its rural land into lifestyle blocks and residential sprawl than any other district council in NZ. Of considerable interest to a logical person like me is why, having rezoned a 140-hectare dairy farm residential to enable yet another satellite housing estate, WDC turned down an application from the former owner of Pegasus golf course for rezoning of a 3-hectare lifestyle block on the edge of Pegasus.
Speaking of which ...
You might be interested to know that Pegasus sits on coastal land that WDC originally bought to use as a landfill – the entrance to which would have been off Gladstone Road.
The environment dodged a mortar shell when WDC sold the land to Southern Capital which had plans for a new town.
SC sold it to Infinity Investments Group which also bought the farmland to the west of the town reaching a compromise with WDC over the rural zoning by making it the site of a golf course with 98 clustered "high-end" houses, and bisected by a new access road.
IIG, via its subsidiary Pegasus Town Ltd, made a mint before PTL went bust owing final debts of $101m.
IIG sold the Pegasus development to Todd Property Group and moved on to develop Ravenswood just across SH1.
As IIG has retained ownership of, and intends to expand the Ravenswood commercial hub, the company is no doubt very happy with the adjacent Gressons Rd subdivision, and the possible further residential development of Pegasus. Ching ching.
It's ironic that WDC, the mayor of which publicly opposes residential development on the Pegasus golf course, may very well have paved the way for that residential development by having previously rezoned 7 hectares of the golf course for commercial development.
Pegasus residents and golf club members also failed to register any opposition to that development.
I can almost hear the fast track commissioner saying that the impacts on stormwater, traffic, sewage, visual amenity etc of a subdivision of say 100 houses on that rezoned land would be not much greater than the proposed 50-bed, 3-storey hotel plus a sprawling spa, with accommodation and associated commercial development.
Watch this space.
