Locals to fight developer who they believe wants to build suburb on golf course

Residents of Gulf Harbor on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula have vowed to fight a developer they believe has taken over their local golf course with the intention of redeveloping it into a suburb’s worth of homes.

At a packed meeting Thursday, residents were told they would have to raise $200,000 in funds to pay for planners and a Kings consultant to fight developer Gregory Oliver in court.

Oliver bought Gulf Harbor Country Club in 2021 – immediately raising the alarm for locals and prompting the formation of Keep Whangaparāoa Green Space (KWGS).

Rumors have circulated among club members that from day one Oliver had hatched a plan to divide the golf course into three parcels and sell them immediately.

when Material contacted Olliver’s company, Long River Investments, to seek clarification on these rumors, the response was simply “no comment.”

Director Wayne Bailey said they are “pending an update” and a statement will be released soon.

“We know there’s interest,” Bailey said.

Interesting indeed. Frenzied fears of potential intensification saw a petition from residents to Auckland Council gather more than 4000 signatures in a matter of weeks.

The residents’ society is lobbying the council to ensure it retains an encumbrance on the land that prevents it from being used as anything other than open space, sport or recreation for a thousand years.

No application has been submitted to change this burden, but residents are waiting.

“I would like nothing more than to sit down with the chief executive of Auckland Council, but unfortunately it is likely that we will have to let the planning process take place,” society secretary Owen Patterson said.

Patterson told residents that it was estimated that news of the course’s demise had already resulted in a loss of 10% of property values ​​in the area – a total value of half a billion dollars.

“We are confident we can win the battle to stop potentially 3000 homes on the golf course, but we need your help.”

Auckland councilor John Watson told the crowd the area was traditionally zoned but there was an “exchange deal” to create mixed housing around the nearby canal, with the golf course as open space.

Watson listed several developments, some that had been successfully stopped by residents and others that had moved forward.

“If the community is organized, resourced and well advised, they can beat these people.”

Shortly after developer Greg Oliver bought the country club, he was banned from being a company director for four years by the Registrar of Companies over an unpaid earthworks bill of $836,000.

The project concerned a collection of properties in St Heliers that was at the center of an epic feud between Olliver and his ex-wife, PR professional Sarah Sparks, that has raged through the courts and the media for a decade.

He narrowly avoided bankruptcy in 2009, owing creditors $92 million by promising to pay them half of his annual salary.

Meanwhile, the country club’s former director of golf Fraser Bond said Material he did not believe that Oliver’s company had properly run the golf course profitably.

“I wouldn’t say he deliberately drove the club into the ground because that could have been done for significantly less money … redeveloping the land was potentially an alternative.”

Two years ago the club had about 900 members, but that had dwindled to about 450, Bond said. The number of tournaments had also dropped drastically from about four a month to two every eight months.

It’s not known how much Oliver bought the country club for, but Bond said the previous owners had received an offer of $24 million, and he thinks the price would be in that ballpark.

If the 92-hectare site were redeveloped into residential plots, it could prove to be a substantially profitable investment.

In July, members received a letter saying the course was not financially viable despite two years of efforts to make it profitable.

“It is appreciated that many of you have absorbed higher charges in recent times, however, despite this, costs continue to exceed revenue … so we have no choice but to cease operations,” the letter said.

Membership dues had increased from $2000 a year to $3000 a year.

The letter says the course is “land generous” and the “most likely route to success” would be to sell surplus land to reinvest in the club.

“The nature of the course layout meant that this was only possible by acquiring neighboring land as well. Negotiations to date have meant that this is not only unsustainable, but ultimately a worse outcome than the status quo.”

At the residents’ association meeting in August, he decided to form a committee and raise funds to stop the land from being anything but a golf course.

“It needs an owner with a strategy to operate it as part of a network of high-tech golf courses,” said secretary Owen Patterson.

A member of the crowd stood up and asked if the community fought to save the course if he could use the green as a non-golfer.

“As someone who comes from a lower income bracket, who could never afford a country club membership, is there any provision for people to use this green space, or is it purely the domain of the club?”

The answer was firm: “No, it’s private land, and if you’re not a member of the club, it’s trespassing on you.”