Council errs: Blenheim retirement village’s high hopes grounded due to zonal laws

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Plans for Summerset’s new retirement village development in Blenheim had to be altered after a 15m high building was given consent despite a 7.5m height limit for buildings in the zone it was in.

Anthony Phelps/STUFF

Plans for Summerset’s new retirement village development in Blenheim had to be altered after a 15m high building was given consent despite a 7.5m height limit for buildings in the zone it was in.

Retirement village giants Summerset has had to dramatically change plans for its new development in Blenheim after consent for a 15m high, multi-storey building was wrongly approved by the Marlborough District Council in a zone with a 7.5m height limit.

The consented two to three storey building was set to house hospital beds, memory care and assisted living suites, as well as a cafe, library, pool and other recreational areas.

But, according to an application to vary conditions of resource consents’ document, the consented building “exceeded the permitted height limit of 7.5m for the zone by 7.4m”.

As a result, the original approved plans had to be scrapped and a new design would now see the multi-storey building replaced by four interconnected single-storey buildings that will be “more synonymous and sympathetic with the surrounding vernacular of Blenheim”.

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Logan Mudge, hHead of communications at Summerset Logan Mudge said, they had changed the design of the village’s main building to a new typology they had been working on which offered “a considerable height reduction”.

Dr. John Hedley, who owns an adjoining property on Old Renwick Rd, and had previously objected to proposals for the new development said he was pleased to hear plans for the multi-storey building had been scrapped.

“I feel pleasantly surprised, and I think it’ll be good for the community. If there was a three-storey building allowed, it would’ve implied that it was open slather (free rein) that we could have multi-storeys around here which would have been a pity.

“The basis that we objected to was that it infringed the district plan on at least four areas and height was one of them, so when we attended the hearing I just drew attention to these areas and the height was the particularly glaring thing.

The retirement village will have 180 independent living units and 30 care beds available when they go on the market.

Anthony Phelps/STUFF

The retirement village will have 180 independent living units and 30 care beds available when they go on the market.

“I don’t know whether it’s democracy in action or whether it would have happened anyway,” he said.

The change from a central multi-storey building to four one-storey structures also meant alterations were required on the roading layouts, areas of open space and villa designs and locations.

The restructured plans would mean a cut in the number of independent living units being built, dropping from an initial 224 down to 180, while the number of available care bed spaces would also be reduced from the planned 43 down to 30.

Despite a sharp drop in the number of residents on site, Mudge said they didn’t anticipate any need to change employee numbers at the retirement village, particularly property maintenance and administration staff.

The first units on the Old Renwick Rd property are expected to be finished by the end of the year.

Anthony Phelps/STUFF

The first units on the Old Renwick Rd property are expected to be finished by the end of the year.

“Those amendments will not affect staffing levels – our staffing ratios for care will remain the same, and the village land size is unchanged requiring the same level of operational staff.

“Once completed, we anticipate the village to employ approximately 75 staff in a range of roles,” he said.

Mudge said despite the recent changes to building designs and village lay out, the first units were still on track to be finished by the end of the year.

“Work is progressing as planned on our Blenheim village … and we will be looking forward to welcoming the first new residents in early 2024,” he said.

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