Bernard Orsman in the Herald scared a few people when he listed Piha among rural villages earmarked to take growth.

He did not get this entirely right. Bernard omitted to say that Piha is classified as “unserviced”, that is, it has no reticulated water or wasterwater.

That means it has “little or no provision for growth”(see p 236 and 237 of the Auckland Plan).

That translates into the Unitary Plan as Rural and Coastal Settlement Zone which has minimum lot size of 4000 m2.

Here’s the article

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10871896

It is important that Piha people look carefully at the Unitary Plan which will tell them what can happen at Piha.

During the development of the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Bill, studies were done of how many sections could be built on at Piha. At that stage, about 2007, there was estimated to be room for about 90 houses. That was assuming every vacant section was built on. Probably about 20 new houses have gone up since then. So I would guess there is room for about another 70 houses at Piha if every site is built on, but we know some folk have a single dwelling on several lots and want to keep in that way.