The future of Ahuriri Regional Park

[As published in March/April 2026 BayBuzz magazine.]

In BayBuzz’s pre-election questionnaire for mayoral and council candidates, Richard McGrath – now Napier City Mayor – expressed some scepticism about the need to develop Ahuriri Regional Park given current financial constraints.

Given a new political environment in Napier, we decided to review the bidding.

Just to recap, Ahuriri Regional Park is an initiative to transform Napier’s Lagoon Farm, currently a 280-hectare sheep farm, into a stormwater treatment facility and regional park. 

The project would create approximately 100 hectares of native plant wetlands to filter and clean the ‘first flush’ of urban stormwater before it enters Te Whanganui-a-Orotu – Ahuriri Estuary – a unique wetland receiving 75% of Napier’s stormwater. BayBuzz reported on the risks to the estuary in a feature story last year (Ahuriri Regional Park … on the right path?).

The project is a collaboration between Napier City Council, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and Mana Ahuriri Trust, and is overseen by a joint co-governance committee – Ahuriri Regional Park Joint Committee, referred to hereafter as the joint committee. 

Pre-election, we asked candidates to name 2-3 specific NCC projects, policies or spends over the past three years with which they personally disagreed.

McGrath said: “The Ahuriri Regional Park, new Council Chambers, and the $58m Library. These are nice to haves, not essentials at this time. Post the 2020 floods, Covid and the Cyclone, we should have been concentrating on water projects. We currently have the same number of water bores as we did 5 years ago and still had water restrictions in mid-April and have only renewed 113m of storm water pipes in the last 2 years …”

However, some of the city and regional councillors that I spoke to do not regard the proposed park as ‘nice-to-have’, but rather an essential project to improve Napier’s stormwater infrastructure and the health of the Ahuriri Estuary.

Regional Councillor Neil Kirton (who serves an alternate on the joint committee for HBRC) asks what parts of the project McGrath is saying are ‘nice to have’?

“Because the core of the whole strategy is to treat stormwater, creating a viable part of the stormwater network of Napier. The Ahuriri estuary is suffering majorly as a result of polluted water getting into it and it’s unusable for swimming or gathering kai. And this is part of a whole process of cleaning up the waterways and storm water and purifying it before it gets into the estuary.”

He also notes that it’s budgeted for in the capital programme for Napier City and it is a condition of its resource consent for stormwater flowing into the estuary, which the council is currently in breach of.

“They would have to go through a significant process in terms of qualifying for their resource consent, should they not demonstrate that the stormwater is going to be treated in some fashion and those issues don’t go away just because Mayor McGrath has a rush of blood to the head.”

NCC Councillor Sally Crown echoed a similar view. She says the driver for the regional park has always been the consenting issue – because a portion of the city’s stormwater is untreated and dispels into the estuary. 

Crown points out that the masterplan for the park concept was agreed to in the last triennium, with the joint committee appointed to manage it. The bulk of the work on the park’s development will be done at that committee level before it becomes a council agenda item. 

Not one project, two

The first thing to note is that two projects – the regional park and the stormwater project – are managed separately. And this is where we can perhaps separate what Mayor McGrath says is ‘nice to have’ from what is imperative. 

The Lagoon Farm stormwater project is part of meeting legal obligations tied to future consent renewal, while the regional park is more of a strategic vision for the future land use for Lagoon Farm. A council spokesperson describes the park as a ‘parent’ project and the stormwater a ‘child’ project.

The concept design for Lagoon Farm proposes a wetland system that will treat runoff from up to 2,905 hectares of contributing catchment from urban Napier. The wetland footprint would span approximately 104ha and has been designed to retain and treat 220,000 cubic metres of stormwater at any one time.

Implementation would take a staged approach, since the intention would be to treat all catchments discharging into the estuary, with the maximum wetland allocated within the Lagoon Farm site itself. Initially only some of the wetlands would be operational and only the adjacent Pūrimu Catchment would be treated. Any flood mitigation benefits are considered a bonus.

The regional park masterplan, on the other hand, is a framework that covers multiple outcomes beyond stormwater management. Importantly, it is not an implementation project. Its focus is on ecological restoration, cultural storytelling and recreational spaces – matters that can be refined and shaped independently to guide future decisions. The stormwater design work, however, must proceed and be implemented to meet regulatory and infrastructure timeframes. 

Any future decisions relating to the regional park project must come through the joint committee first and then return to the respective councils for formal consideration.

Committee member reshuffle

It’s worth noting that Mayor McGrath has reshuffled Napier’s representation on the joint committee, as is normal with an incoming council. The previous three NCC representatives, Annette Brosnan and Hayley Brown (both no longer in council) and Keith Price have been replaced by Whare Isaac-Sharland, Nigel Simpson and Craig Morley. 

It remains to be seen where NCC’s new representatives stand on the proposal, but Brosnan, who was chair in the last triennium, was the most vocal champion of the concept.

HBRC’s new representatives are Louise Parsons and Michelle McIlroy, with Kirton continuing as the alternate. Mana Ahuriri representatives for the last triennium were Joseph Reti (Deputy Chair), Peter Eden, Chad Tareha and Evelyn Ratima (Alternate), and it’s not known if these representatives will change. A new chair will be elected by the refreshed committee.

NCC’s Simpson says he’s getting himself up to speed on the technical documents ahead of the committee’s first meeting on March 16.

“The environmental consideration of how to improve the quality of stormwater being discharged into the estuary is important and we need to ensure all options and methods and cost are considered fully before we proceed with any treatment process.

“New eyes over this activity will bring new perspectives and ensure the best way forward for this,” he says.

Differing priorities

In a statement provided by Mayor McGrath to BayBuzz, he notes that he was clear about the fact that he wanted to “take a careful look at this project.

“That commitment was about ensuring council remains focused on critical infrastructure, managing risk, and keeping rates affordable for residents. In the current fiscal environment, it’s both prudent and responsible to balance financial constraints with more pressing infrastructure needs.”

Because the park is a complex and regionally significant project, working “collaboratively and respectfully” with the regional council and Mana Ahuriri, as well as other stakeholders, has been critical to the work already done and will continue to be going forward, he says.

Here’s the potential rub. He continues: 

“We’re currently at an important point in a broader planning and budgeting process. Across council, we’re assessing all projects for financial viability, then re-prioritising and phasing to ensure we’re living within our means. This work will inform the development of our Annual Plan 2026-27 and Long Term Plan 2027-37. At this stage, no decisions have been made to alter the course of the Ahuriri Regional Park project.”

But as McGrath indicates, that can obviously change as financial priorities do.

The Ahuriri Regional Park masterplan has been developed with $300,000 from the existing allocation in the current 2024-27 three year plan, and jointly funded by NCC and HBRC.

What might be affected if priorities change is the $13.2 million implementation funding allocated in the Napier LTP, which covers stormwater wetland construction, site access and infrastructure from 2028 onwards. HBRC has committed an additional $9m from 2032.

These core initiatives are to be developed in detail prior to the next funding cycle and NCC is currently working towards formal adoption of the project level budget in 2027.

McGrath says council must have the maturity to challenge its own thinking, incorporate new information and respond to a changing landscape. “It is about taking a considered, financially responsible approach that respects process and ensures decisions are well-informed and in the long-term interests of Napier and the wider region.”

Mana Ahuriri remains committed

Key stakeholder Mana Ahuriri do not see the regional park – or the group’s other big mega-project, development of Ahuriri Station near the airport – as a ‘nice to have’ or discretionary. 

Rather, they are viewed in the context of Te Tiriti redress, statutory recognition, and long-term co-governance and planning frameworks, which Parris Greening says “sit above short-term political cycles”.

However, nor do they see the change in leadership at council as a shift away from that. “We have received no indication that Napier City Council intends to withdraw from its commitments.”

“Ahuriri Regional Park is core city and regional infrastructure. It is about Te Whanganui ā Orutu (Ahuriri estuary) restoration, flood resilience, climate adaptation, public access, and cultural recognition of mana whenua. It is co-governed between Mana Ahuriri and councils as an expression of Te Tiriti partnership. If elements are re-phased, that affects timing, not intent. 

“Our environmental, cultural, and intergenerational objectives for Te Whanganui ā Orotu remain unchanged,” he continues.

But what if financial priorities do change, as McGrath suggests could happen? 

Even Greening has previously told BayBuzz that the park’s primary goal is the treatment of stormwater that currently enters the estuary untreated.

It seems feasible that cultural storytelling and recreational space could easily be de-prioritised as discretionary, from the perspective of a cost cutting mayor and the ratepayers who voted for him.

As Kirton points out, what the council cannot dissociate from is how the Lagoon Farm plan for stormwater processing connects to the wider crisis of stormwater management in Napier City, which he says is likely to be exacerbated by the likes of the Riverbend Road housing development.

“If you look at the whole spatial plan you have thousands of sections of hard surface area being created which will create vastly more runoff and stormwater collection. What provisions are they making to handle the stormwater from that? The water quality going into the estuary is poor and it’s the obligation of NCC to remedy that as they continue to be in breach of their resource consent.”

Enter bird strike

Regardless of any ‘reprioritising’, an already identified risk could make or break any plans for the regional park to proceed, creating an apparent tension between ecological restoration and aviation safety.

In April last year, Hawke’s Bay Airport chief executive Nick Flack stated he was opposed to the development of the regional park due to the heightened risk of bird strike. That hasn’t changed.

“Mitigation is put in place when you have no other choice. Ahuriri Regional Park is essentially a large body of water to attract birds, and it’s under one kilometre from the end for our runway. If you look at all of the international bird strike evidence, in the last three kilometres around an airport, is where new water bodies should be avoided.”

Last year, former Mayor Kirsten Wise told BayBuzz that park development would not proceed unless the risk from bird strike could be mitigated, and that investigations were underway.

Flack says he remains apprehensive until this work is complete and notes the airport already has three times the national average rate of birdstrike. Any increase could deter airlines from flying into the region. 

“We advocate for no new water bodies, and we support the science of a risk assessment to determine if it’s going to increase the risk of bird strike in the region. The bird strike study needs to be done and released.”

Flack says the airport aspires to continue operating on its current site for another 70-to-80 years, indicating it has no plans to relocate. Its proximity to Napier City is seen as an advantage when it comes to attracting visitors.

Kirton says there has been a lot of work done around wetland construction to avoid any significant increase in birdlife that would affect the airport.

This includes expert bird ecologists counting the number of birds, species and where they’re flying, and wetland design that involves planting lots of native vegetation to minimise the open water surface, which in turn discourages birds from landing, among other things.

NCC informs BayBuzz that the expert review is still underway, that the information is incomplete and so far indicates various levels of risk. A comprehensive assessment is in its early stages and any potential risk needs to be well understood.

Sitting joint committee member Nigel Simpson says because the regional economy is highly dependent on both tourism and business air travel, ensuring safe air travel in and out of the region is a high priority.

Mana Ahuriri … airport owner?

Complicating all this is the potential sale of the Crown’s 50% share of the airport to Mana Ahuriri. The Trust is actively considering whether it will take up the right to buy the stake as part of its treaty settlement. 

If it does proceed with the purchase to become a majority shareholder of the airport, it would represent a conflict of interest, given its simultaneous position on the joint committee. 

As an airport owner, Mana Ahuriri’s view on the bird strike review findings obviously would become more critical. 

Sitting on both sides of the table would require managing these competing priorities – airport operational interests over wetland development, or vice versa?

Greening says that technical matters such as bird strike sit within normal assessment processes and do not undermine the strategic rationale for the project, but he has previously noted the issue requires careful consideration.

“Mana Ahuriri advances its long-term vision by anchoring projects in settlement instruments, maintaining co-governance within Te Tiriti partnerships, and taking an intergenerational — not electoral-cycle — view. We make mokopuna decisions,” he says.

Ahuriri Station – another infrastructure project in the mix

An even bigger mega-project that Mana Ahuriri is advancing is a commercial/industrial and residential development at Ahuriri Station. This is a 1300ha parcel of land adjacent to the Airport and south of Onehunga Road in Napier. With negotiations with the Crown underway, it will be purchased by the Trust as an asset made available through the Treaty settlement process.

Plans for the site, which is in the early stages of development, include a freight, logistics and industrial hub, more than 1000 new residential homes, ecological parks and recreational spaces, a solar farm and cultural heritage sites.

The project is one of a 149 nationally fast-tracked infrastructure projects, and is included in the region’s Future Development Strategy, which means NCC and Hastings District Council are considering it in district plan changes.

Greening says that this statutory recognition provides certainty for planning going forward.

“While constructive council alignment is important, the development is not dependent on council advocacy alone, Mana Ahuriri is more than capable in championing its own developments and appreciate the support from its Te Tiriti partners. Mana Ahuriri continues to progress planning and investment pathways consistent with our settlement and development strategy,” he says.

Airport chief executive Nick Flack says he supports the project in principle but contingent on any noise sensitivities and that developments happen outside of airport noise contours and in sympathy with how the airport operates.

“We have worked with them at length on this – it’s making sure that housing developments aren’t in close proximity to airport operations … so that someone doesn’t buy a house in a location that is going to be impacted by airport noise. We advocate to make sure that reverse sensitivities aren’t put in place that would limit our ability to operate in this region.”

Both projects – the Regional Park and Ahuriri Station – have laudable aims and the potential to increase the health of the environment and the quality of life of the people who live here. 

However, as these two projects advance and a potential airport sale is on the cards, the possibility of even greater controversy is evident. Not only because of all these competing interests, but because they also involve public infrastructure, public investment and inevitably community sentiment. 

Photos: Florence Charvin