Residents of the new Hobsonville Point housing development fear part of the 24 hectares of green space they were promised could instead become another development.
A former munitions area known as Bomb Point is slated to be turned into an 11.2 hectare reserve. Photo: Google Maps
The stoush is over a former munitions area known as Bomb Point, which is slated to be turned into an 11.2 hectare reserve.
After the land was re-zoned as residential, some residents now fear it risks being turned into more houses, although the company which runs the site denies this.
While the houses may be closer together than most in Auckland, Hobsonville Point is marketed as somewhere with massive amounts of green space.
Central to this is Bomb Point, which the government company that owns the land, HLC, calls "the jewel in Hobsonville Point's crown".
The plan had been for Auckland Council to purchase the park from HLC and then turn it into a public park.
But after HLC re-zoned the land as residential its value soared, causing some to question how the council would pay for it.
Julienne Molineaux, from the Preserve Bomb Point Action Committee, said she was worried the deal would fall through.
"Council's own policies say that Hobsonville Point qualifies as a suburban park ... which gets between three and five hectares.
"Our concern is that they'll go into negotiations with HLC with that figure in mind, then HLC might say, 'Well, we had every intention of this becoming a public reserve but council have not come to the party. What are we supposed to do?'"
Ms Molineaux and the group's chairperson, Grant Dixon, laid out their grievances at the council's Environment and Community Committee meeting yesterday.
Mr Dixon told the committee that as the number of residents in the area continued to grow, they would desperately need the green space.
"All Hobsonville Point property owners have bought into the area with the full expectation that this 11.2 hectares will be park. Now this is a critical point; this is a point of honesty and truth," he said.
Mr Dixon let the committee know the strength of feeling that some residents had about the issue.
"If you do not support this ... we will be out there, we will protest and we will vote because elections are next year and we will remember this when we vote."
However, HLC chief executive Chris Aiken strenuously denied there were any plans to build houses at Bomb Point.
"We have said very clearly and we have written to the community to say that there is no intention of HLC to do anything other than to meet the original commitment to the community that that would be a significant reserve.
Auckland Councillors yesterday held a meeting behind closed doors to discuss the purchase of the land.
