Developer seeks to build road through Silverstream Spur, then construct 1600 homes

Source: Radio New Zealand

A developer is calling on the Upper Hutt City Council to let it build what it believes to be a crucial road through native bush, so it can construct 1600 homes.

Guildford Timber Company (GTC) wants to build the road through an area of council-owned land known as the Silverstream Spur, where “tuis, wax eyes, bellbirds, morepork, kaka parrots, and now also the kiwi” live.

It had been looking to develop 330 hectares of its own land for the homes in Silverstream, a 30-minute drive from downtown Wellington’s, since 2007.

It wanted to establish a link road between its sites on the ridgeline and valley floor, saying the “the best access available” was through the Silverstream Spur.

In 2024, Upper Hutt City Council decided to rezone the Spur as a natural open space, which would not allow for the development of a road on the land.

GTC appealed the decision in the Environment Court, on the grounds that the rezoning had intended for a provision to allow for infratsructure, such as a road. A date for the hearing has yet to be set.

Matt Griffin, a project manager whose family co-founded GTC, said a road through the Spur was necessary for the development.

“We were looking at other access routes, they just don’t tick those same metrics from our point of view and potentially pull the development out of the heart of the local community,” he said.

GTC said the road would link the development to train and bus networks, reducing car dependency.

“We want ideally a way that people can walk or ride their bike and connect into the local train station and for it to become a vibrant part of Silverstream and Pinehaven,” Griffin said.

However, the idea of a road through the Spur has garnered vocal opposition.

‘Wildlife corridor’

Forest and Bird applied to be party to GTC’s Environment Court proceedings. Regional Conservation Manager Amelia Geary said the organisation is defending the council’s decision to zone the Spur as a natural open space.

She said Forest and Bird did not oppose GTC’s development, but a road would be “incompatible with the purpose of the zone”.

She argued that a road would remove the forest’s ability to regenerate and become a “wildlife corridor”.

“We say that Silverstream Spur is too important ecologically for a road to be enabled and to bulldoze the values that are there.”

Locals echoed her worries. Pinehaven resident Debbie said: “We are truly blessed to be living here, surrounded with trees and nature, native bush. And with that native bush comes the wildlife –Tuis, wax eyes, bellbirds, morepork, kaka parrots, and now also the kiwi.”

“I have a really heartbreaking concern that if these houses are built, then that forest is gone forever. There’s no coming back from that. And we know that the wildlife will suffer.”

GTC stressed that a road would only take up a small part of the Spur – about a tenth of the area.

“I think there’s a misconception in New Zealand that just because an area is bush, it must have ecological merit and is somehow surviving by itself, and frankly that’s not the case. You know, land needs to be managed and it takes resources and people to do that,” Griffin said.

‘No-complaint covenants don’t work’

However, a tenth of the area was too much land to give up for Jason Durry, the operations manager of Silver Stream Railway, who also joined the Environment Court proceedings.

“We’re not talking about a little, minor, narrow road up the hill. It is going to be quite a major road. And the route where it wants to smash through is some of the best bits, with the best native vegetation on it.”

Durry said the Spur had been acquired by the council as a reserve and there should not be any provisions to allow for a road to go through it. He challenged whether GTC needed to have a road go through the Spur. “They don’t need it. They have numerous other access points that they own already that they can use.”

He also worried about reverse sensitivity – which considers how existing infrastructure might negatively impact the development’s future residents.

Durry argued that residents could complain about noise and smoke from the heritage railway, which may constrain operations. “We’ve worked to preserve New Zealand’s railway history and consider ourselves an important part of the Upper Hutt community. We operate along a section of former railway line that turned 150 years old this year.”

He was not reassured by GTC’s assurances that their development would have no-complaints covenants, which in theory would stop residents from complaining about disruption from nearby infrastructure, such as the railway or the landfill.

“No-complaint covenants don’t work. We’ve got other property that we have sold in the past to developer. And part of that [had] a no-complaints covenant on it. The residents have still occasionally complained.”

Hutt City Council commissioned a report which found that noise and odours from Silverstream Landfill may be too objectionable for future residents of the proposed development and so could jeopardise its operational license. This would have knock-on effects on the council resulting in possibly higher council rates.

GTC disputed this, stressing that it had been in communication with the landfill to manage any impacts from the development. It said it also commissioned a report into reverse sensitivy from its development to inform design and mitigation measures.

“We don’t want to cause any issues for the operation of the landfill as we agree with Hutt City that it is critical infrastructure. So our design captures that and ultimately we will only build where those effects can be managed, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to sell the homes,” the company said.

Flooding ‘misconceptions’

GTC said it wanted to clear up “misconceptions” about the development causing more flooding or slips – arguing it would strengthen the area’s flood resilience..

Several Pinehaven and Silverstream locals told RNZ they worried that building houses and deforestation were worsening stormwater run-off and erosion

One resident, Debbie said: “We know that Guildford Timber have, over the last five years or so, removed a lot of pine from up on those hills. And in the two floods that we’ve had this year already, the water’s coming more quickly. The water is filled with silt.”

But a GTC spokesperson rejected this. “It’s actually the opposite. Through a development you actually control and direct water flows, so once this project is complete the risk will have been permanently reduced compared with current land use,” they said.

However, lobby group Flooding Us Director Steve Pattinson said extra run-off from a development was “inevitable”, as forest was replaced by “hard surfaces like roads, roofs, driveways”.

He doubted that the developer could mitigate extra run-off . “Mitigation relies entirely on the reliability of the modelling. The modelling is not reliable.”

Pattison argued that flood maps for the area were overestimating potential flood risks. GTC countered that more conservative estimates would only allow for better protection.

‘Vehicles all over the place’

GTC has run into other zoning issues with its development. Its land is classed as a general rural zone, which limits the density and scale of the homes it can build.

Upper Hutt City Council proposed rezoning the area in 2023 as a general residential zone, which would remove these limitations.

But the council withdrew the proposal in December last year after receiving a majority of submisisons that opposed to the project.

Hutt City Council, the Greater Wellington Regional Council and New Zealand Transport Agency provided submissions against the zone change.

NZTA’s submission read: “No evidence or information has been provided to understand the transport effects of this proposal. In particular NZTA is concerned about what (if any) improvements would be required to the local road/SH2 intersection as a result of the increase in traffic movements.”

On local community Facebook groups, residents of Pinehaven and Silverstream said they were concerned roading infrastructure would not be able to accommodate more cars.

Silverstream resident William told RNZ the transport network was unsuitable for the current population, and said there were already “vehicles all over the place”.

However, GTC said traffic could be managed, especially when accounting for planned upgrades to the area. It added that it had budgeted for minor roading upgrades.

Griffin joked that the concern was not unique to this development.

“I think everybody in every town in New Zealand sort of is frustrated with how their local roundabout or traffic lights do or don’t work,” he said.

In order to rezone its land, GTC has applied for Fast Track Approval. The Silverstream Forest development was listed as a Fast Track project in 2024.

‘Exciting potential’

Alongside the concern, the project has also aroused support in the local population.

Property manager Veronica Watson said she was “surprisingly impressed” by GTC’s proposal.

She learnt about the project from a neighbour petitioning against it. “I went into it expecting this is going to be another sort of [project to] cram houses on the tiny little sections, no concern for the environment, no care for the neighbours.”

Watson liked that GTC addressed the development’s ecological impacts and wanted to preserve the area’s special character.

“Rather than having rows and rows and rows of Coronation Street houses, [GTC] actually had properties designed to be sympathetic with the environment.”

Griffin said his family had been involved in the community for more than 100 years.

“It’s something we’re really proud of. We consider ourselves guardians of this amazing landscape and we’re really passionate about doing something unique.”

He said GTC was “passionate about ecological outcomes” and that the development would provide resources to support wildlife and pest control.

“Some people still believe we plan to strip the forest and replace it with homes. But in reality we’re talking about using 30 to 35 percent of the land for development, which includes roads, with the remainder being green space,” the company said.

Patrick McKibbin, head of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, said he had been keeping a “keen eye on the project”, hoping it would pour money into the Hutt Valley.

“The potential for our businesses, to create jobs, to create opportunities, to grow, to be as successful as possible is very, very significant if this project goes ahead. The potential of this is very, very exciting.”

He estimated that the project could bring in hundreds of millions of dollars over a decade or so. He added that there had probably never been a project of this size undertaken in one go before in the area.

McKibbin added that the area needed more housing to keep up with a growing population.

Upper Hutt City Council estimated that its population would grow from 46,000 to 70,000 by 2051.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand