The Onoke Heights site at Te Kamo with the bush-clad Onoke Scenic Reserve on the hilltop in the distance. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf
- A Whangārei developer has dropped its appeal over a proposed subdivision on culturally significant land
- Onoke Heights Limited had applied to build 93 homes on the land and was granted consent by the Whangārei District Council
- In December 2024 the Environment Court quashed consent for the development, a decision which was appealed to the High Court
A Whangārei hapū is celebrating the end of a controversial development on land they consider tapu, or sacred after the developer dropped their appeal.
But the hapū are now looking at options to protect the whenua from future development.
Ngāti Kahu o Torongare has been in and out of court for the last 30 years to protect land near Onoke Pā, in the Whangārei suburb of Te Kamo.
Hapū spokeswoman Nicki Wakefield said it's a huge relief that the developer Onoke Heights Limited has dropped their appeal.
Ngāti Kahu o Torongare spokeswoman Nicki Wakefield and kaumatua Richard Shepherd, with Onoke Pā in the distance. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf
"We wish we weren't in that situation, to begin with, but it's such a relief that we don't have to spend another year in the High Court spending tens of thousands of dollars on a fight that we've already won twice."
In 1996 the hapū went to the Environment Court to stop a subdivision on land next to Onoke Pā, the hapū won that case but in 2018 the almost seven-hectare site, next to Dip Road on the edge of Te Kamo, was zoned residential.
Developer Onoke Heights Limited applied to build 93 homes on the land and was issued consent by the Whangārei District Council.
Ngāti Kahu o Torongare took that to the Environment Court and in December last year, where the court quashed the consent, which the developers then appealed.
A sign on a private property near Onoke Pā. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf
Wakefield said the hapū are thankful for all the tautoko (support) they've received, which included support from the wider iwi of Ngāpuhi and donations to cover legal fees at the Environment Court.
But she said the site is still zoned as residential and therefore still at risk of development.
"It's really important now that we put in the protections that Onoke should have always had, even since the 90s, they haven't been put in by the council despite all the evidence being there that the place is not suitable for development."
The hapū are also concerned that there is no protection for the large Pūriri trees on the site.
"Now we get to focus on the long-term protection through the district plan, the protection of the huge rākau Pūriri on site and trying to find a way to take the land of the owner and look after it as a hapū," she said.
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