Council holds off on consulting on Abbeyfield shared home development

A plan to build a shared seniors’ home in a little-used park has hit a speed bump – the Marlborough District Council must first check if it’s allowed to give up the land.

That's because the land, at Murphys Creek Reserve, in Blenheim, was derived from the Crown, the council’s parks and open spaces planner Linda Craighead told the assets and services committee on Tuesday.

“So given the land is derived from the Crown, then it's not the council's to dispose of,” Linda says.

“That's something that just literally arrived on our desk yesterday, so we need to look at that a little bit further, and we also need to initiate some discussions with the Department of Conservation.”

Under the Reserves Act, any revocation of land derived from the Crown must be disposed of as specified by the Minister of Conservation. The council held the land in trust from the Crown.

Abbeyfield Marlborough is a group that’s been trying to bring a shared flat-style home to Blenheim for the better part of six years.

The group this year submitted to the Marlborough District Council’s annual plan, requesting the council subdivide off half of Murphys Creek Reserve in Springlands.

The volunteer-based charity had a dozen houses across the country. The purpose-built home pitched for Blenheim would house about 12 senior citizens.

Off the back of the annual plan submission, the council agreed to investigate the idea.

Linda told the committee they could still push ahead with consultation while they awaited a decision from the Department of Conservation.

“There's also a public notification required under the Reserves Act, but we're not at that point yet,” she said.

“This is just some early consultation, and what we will do, is probably do a letter drop around the reserve, but also a wider public notification.

“If we just put the issue of the Crown to one side, the intention was that we would go out and consult, and we would also consult with the Department of Conservation as well.

“But then we would come back to the council and that's the point of which the council would then make a decision of whether to proceed.”

However, councillors decided it would be better to wait until they understood whether they could hand over the land.

Marlborough mayor Nadine Taylor says she is interested in the implications, now knowing where the land had come from.

Meanwhile, councillor Jonathan Rosene asked staff if Abbeyfield had a “plan b” should the land not work out.

Council’s property and community facilities manager Jamie Lyall says Abbeyfield’s “challenge” was that for their model to work, they could not afford to pay for the site.

“They are looking for someone to provide them with a free block of land which they can then develop,” he says.

“They have been in discussion with other parties, none of those have resulted in an outcome that has met their requirements. So, it is a bit of a challenge for them to find that perfect piece of land.”

Blenheim ward councillor Jamie Arbuckle says while he did not want to be “controversial”, despite hearing submissions from Abbeyfield for a number of years, he did not know if the council had “accepted their concept”.

“There is other forms of senior housing and I know the concept here is a different form, it's kind of like a communal type of living.

“But I would struggle to find a minute ... where we've actually accepted the concept.”

Jamie says under the council’s long-term plan there was a statement that suggested the council was an advocate and supporter of all other housing entities in Marlborough.

“So at the highest level there is a direction there for council to support these other groups,” he said.

Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ on Air.