Ownership of a public reserve in Ngongotahā will be gifted back to the whānau who donated it decades ago.
Backers of the move included former Te Pāti Māori co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell, who said it was once part of the family farm.
Rotorua Lakes Council agreed to dispose of the “surplus” 810sq m section in April after a majority of public submissions supported this.
Last week, councillors voted to gift the land back to descendants of the original owners, without charge.
That was rather than asking the descendants to pay up to $38,000 in costs for the return, or the council selling the property on the open market.
The land was valued at about $300,000 and cost about $8000 a year to maintain.
It was initially unclear how the council came to own the land but a council report found it was originally part of a larger area vested in Ranginui Whakaue Hikairo in 1955 and subdivided into sections for whānau.
The 810sq m section on Ranginui St was later vested in her son Pakeke Heketoro Leonard to vest in the council as a reserve.
It is across the road from a larger reserve that provides public access to Lake Rotorua.
Mayor Tania Tapsell told the meeting last Wednesday that the original gifting of the land to the benefit of the community was a “great generosity” and thanked the whānau for that.
“It would give me no greater joy than to return this land to the descendants … on the same good faith it was given to us previously.”
She supported gifting back the land without recovering costs as she believed the council would quickly benefit from not having to maintain the land.
Tapsell believed it was in the district’s best interest to return the land, and noted the larger reserve remained across the road.
Councillor Robert Lee said the council had to act in the best interest of ratepayers regarding the “asset”.
“We cannot be gifting ratepayers’ land … to our mates.”
He backed selling it, saying “genuine grievances” were for the Waitangi Tribunal.
Councillor Conan O’Brien said councillors were not there just as “bean counters” but to provide some “natural justice” in suitable circumstances.
He said while the council was not 100% sure how it came to own the land, there was no proof it was purchased.
Some people did not want housing on the land but he said it was not for him to say what owners could do with their land if it was compliant.
O’Brien said he believed gifting it back was the “very right and proper thing”.
Rawiri Waru said the council had moral duties alongside its fiduciary duties.
He supported gifting back the land: “Whakahoki e te whenua, it’s as easy as that.”
Councillor Trevor Maxwell said it was pleasing that ”many feel the same way I do” about gifting back the land.
“Fortunately for me, I know of the original owners.”
His grandmother spent lots of time at the marae and wharenui with Ranginui, he said, while her son and former deputy mayor Pakeke was an influence for why Maxwell stood for council.
Maxwell said he had seen land gifted back similarly in the past and noted the “huge support” for doing so through submissions.
Flavell told Local Democracy Reporting his whānau were “very happy” with the council’s decision to gift back the land but they had not decided what to do with it.
The family was “very clear”, however, that the land would not be alienated from them in the future, and they would ensure whānau could access it.
Flavell and his cousin Karl Leonard previously addressed the council to ask for the section’s return.
Flavell’s submission said the land was part of the whānau farm owned by his kuia Ranginui Whakaue Hikairo and koro Heketoro Leonard.
He understood his grandparents’ farm was subdivided in the late 1950s for whānau, and his uncle Pakeke Heketoro Leonard transferred the section to the council in 1962.
He did not believe it was under the Public Works Act and said no reserve contribution obligation existed for Māori Freehold Land at that time.
The council’s decision came after one in December to return Pūruru South Recreation Reserve on Tarewa Rd to descendants of the original gifter, the late Pat Ruhi. He gave the land to the city in 1964 for a reserve and playground, but the council decided to remove the playground in 2022 and not replace it.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
