Press Release

Four months after Gulf Harbour Country Club (GHCC) closed, its owner has applied to Auckland Council for resource consent to alter the boundaries of the course, effectively subdividing it into two parts, one of which it wants to sell for development.

Keep Whangaparāoa’s Green Spaces Incorporated Society (KWGS) [www.kwgnz.org] believes this is a cynical and disingenuous attempt to over-build Gulf Harbour by undermining the 999-year Encumbrance that protects the Golf Course land as Open Space.

Auckland Council should stand by the Encumbrance and not be swayed by spurious, unsupported arguments that the GHCC business is unviable.

KWGS believes that the Golf Course which has been operating for 27 years, has in recent years been in a holding pattern while the owner examines ways of spli[ng it up for residential housing and rest home development.

Gulf Harbour was originally conceived as a community built around a world-class marina and golf course.

When development occurred, offsets to the total green space underpinned the Golf Course and existing housing has been constructed with covenants in favour of the Golf Course in their titles.

The message to KWGS from the Whangaparāoa community to Auckland Council through our initial public meeting, 4600 signature petition and ongoing engagement through the press and wider media is that no-one living in the community wants this wholesale desecration of the green space to proceed.

Everyone living in Gulf Harbour is well aware of the severe service infrastructure constraints, especially roading and traffic, that currently plague the area.

In addition, KWGS believes there are in excess of 1000 more dwellings yet to be built in Gulf Harbour already zoned for building as of right.

The existing inadequate infrastructure would be severely compromised by any further housing or rest home building on top of the 1000 more to come.

The GHCC is a failed business.

Its failure is due to, KWGS believes, the current owners having future extensive housing development plans as the reason for their purchase.

KWGS believes there is a strong indication of buyer interest for GHCC as a golf course business from both within New Zealand and internationally.

On behalf of the community, KWGS calls on Auckland Council to immediately reject the resource consent application dated 15th November 2023 and to state they will uphold the encumbrance on the golf course land in favour of the community.