Milford and Wairau Valley suffered the worst flooding in the city during the Anniversary Weekend storm in 2023. Two people died there, and 69 were rescued.
Afterwards, 2500 tonnes of ruined household possessions were carted away from Milford, and 131 homes designated Category 3 – too risky to live in.
To prevent history from repeating itself, Auckland Council’s Healthy Waters team came up with a plan to convert the Takapuna Golf Course, on council-owned land, from 18 holes to nine.
The balance would become a wetland to hold 550 million litres of floodwater, thus preventing it from sweeping through the suburb.
The suggestion has caused a buzz, especially from locals. Kiwi golf superstar Ryan Fox weighed in, saying the loss would “significantly damage” the recreational side of golf.
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In response, the club has come up with an alternate plan that retains the course’s 18 holes and uses a ‘dry basin’ approach to create a flood retention zone.
Both ideas have been looked at by engineers and other experts from Healthy Waters. A redevelopment announcement by Auckland Council is due on Monday morning, presumably outlining the more appealing option.
Contributing writer at The Spinoff, Hayden Donnell, has chronicled the saga that is the back-and-forth over the course.
He told The Front Page that the idea of doing away with the golf course seems to offend people on a personal level.
“There’s also a lot of money, let’s face it, tied up in a lot of golf courses, and there’s a lot of resources for people that are passionate about the sport to access,” he said.
It’s not the first public backlash over proposed changes to a golf course, either.
“You might remember a few years ago, 2019, I think it was, that Chamberlain Park Golf Course in Mount Albert, the local board there proposed to remove half of it and make it nine holes [as they] desperately needed some community sports facilities.
“That caused a massive backlash. The board was voted out, the proposal was put on hold or aborted.
“It seems like this happens whenever a golf course is in any way threatened with some sort of different use. Remuera Golf Course, another one, where Phil Goff was talking about potentially using it for a different purpose.
“Then the local board extended its lease to 2091.
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“Just for context, the council owns, I think, 13 golf courses in Auckland, and there is something like 43 overall. So it’s not a city that is short of golf courses, but it still proves incredibly difficult to get rid of any of them,” he said.
Tom Mansell, Auckland Council head of sustainable partnerships (healthy waters and flood resilience), told The Front Page they’re in the final stages of an eight-step feasibility assessment of Takapuna Golf Club’s revised design.
“Once this process has concluded, we’ll be sharing the outcome of this with our elected members, the local community, and the resident and business groups who have been involved in the engagement – and the public,” he said.
While Mansell can’t divulge the cost of construction for both options until the review is revealed, he did mention the business case submitted by the council to the Transport, Resilience, and Infrastructure Committee in April indicated costs of about $57 million.
“The goal is to maximise the amount of flood storage so we can minimise the flooding impacts to homes and businesses. At the end of the day, this is a flood resilience project, and reducing flood risk to our communities is our primary goal. So, if it’s feasible to increase the flood storage, then we will do so,” Mansell said.
Listen to the full episode to hear more about the proposal.
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The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
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