Disturbed Dreams of a Sleeping Giant – Sleepyhead’s Fix to the Housing Crisis

Housing

Sleepyhead is chopping and changing its ambitious plan to build a super-factory and a community of 1100 medium density houses on a block of farmland in the north Waikato.

Sydney Turner set his grandsons Craig and Graeme to work on the factory floor, building mattresses. Now Craig and Graeme Turner own Sleepyhead, the biggest mattress-manufacturer in Australasia, and they believe they can create a whole Sleepyhead town where future employees will be born, grow up, work at their factory, buy homes and eventually die.

John and Jessie Lumsden bought up swampy flood plains across north Waikato and converted them to productive dairy farmland where their grandson Malcolm now farms. The 72-year-old lives next door to the proposed Sleepyhead Estate on Lumsden Rd, named after his grandfather. Decade after decade, he’s seen floods sweep across these green plains – and he fears for what will happen if 1100 little houses made of ticky-tacky are built there.

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How wise is it to urgently fast-track the resource consent process for the new Ohinewai foam factory, on the north Waikato flood plain abutting the protected Lake Rotokawau? Click here to comment.

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Allan Sanson is another third generation farmer, now mayor of the Waikato District with bold dreams to expand the council’s rating base with more industry, more houses, more people on the district’s lush land on the banks of the Waikato River.

This is a tale of the generations – and of aging patriarchs whose decisions now will impact on those not yet born.

A decision is expected in February from the Waikato district planning commissioners, on whether 176 hectares at Ohinewai, 5km north of Huntly, should be rezoned from farm land to a mix of industrial, commercial and residential.

If it passes that hurdle, the Government has agreed that the first part of the $1.1 billion project – a foam factory – can be fast-tracked through the resource consent process. Its supporters hope it could get a green light by April.

That’s already a six-month delay on the project managers’ ambitious timeline – and that’s not the only ambitious part of the original “masterplan” for a 1500-job, 3000-person community, that is now being chopped and changed.

Craig Turner has confirmed they have dropped plans for an outlet mall in the Sleepyhead Estate, which was projected to have created 169 jobs. And neighbour Malcolm Lumsden said they were now negotiating to run a railway siding across his farmland.

The Waikato’s safety valve

Malcolm Lumsden has a photo of himself in a homemade canoe, playing with his younger brothers Kerren and Ralph in the receding waters of the oft-remembered floods of February 1958. His mother wasn’t well pleased, he recalls, because of the danger.

Just a couple of years earlier, Prime Minister Keith Holyoake had visited the family. He knelt down in the boys’ sandpit, and talked to them about the danger posed by floods and the importance of beginning work on a big flood control system across the Waikato. Stopbanks and dams were built, overflow canals were dug, control gates and valves were installed, and the farmers were told they were not allowed to build banks around their own land.

When the Lower Waikato-Waipa Flood Control Scheme was completed, the farmland on the plains at Rangiriri, Te Kauwhata and Ohinewai would be sacrificed every time the waters of Lake Waikare and the Waikato Rivers broke their banks. The farmland was designated as “flood storage” area. The Lumsden family understood it was for the greater good.

Subsequent floods have been devastating, but the control scheme has saved people’s homes. The big Waikato River flood of July 1998 had a peak flow of 1,490 cubic metres a second at Huntly – only marginally lower than the estimated 1540 cubic metre peak of the February 1958 flood. In some locations, flood levels were higher in 1998.

And locals know that with the extreme weather events caused by the climate crisis, these one in 100 year floods are likely to become ever more frequent. Maintaining the flood control scheme will be critical to their safety.

He and his family are taking a “neutral” approach to the Sleepyhead proposal – they don’t intend to stand in its way and did not lodge any submission, for or against it, in the district plans review hearings in September. “Please, don’t convey that I’m opposed to development. I’m just concerned about the sense of developing on this certain land,” Lumsden says.

He, like Waikato Regional Council chair Russ Rimmington, would be far happier if the new development were built five kilometres down the road at Huntly – which could do with the investment after the expressway bypassed it last year.

Lumsden is concerned that Sleepyhead plans to dump thousands of tonnes of infill on the land to elevate the 1100 new houses above the threat of rising floodwaters – but he says this will only fill up the flood storage area. putting others at greater risk, and create a risk of subsidence in the peaty marshland.

“But the benefits to the local community, particularly Huntly, are so great that we couldn’t afford to be seen to be dogs in the manger,” he says.

“Apart from environmental reasons we have no good reason to oppose it – it increases the value of our land! But if you come back and ask me in 10 years, we probably won’t be here. There will be ribbon development all along the expressway corridor.”

Why build at Ohinewai?

Graeme Turner plays golf at Te Kauwhata, pretty much every Saturday according to the local mayor. He got to talking to people in the clubrooms, at the time that Sleepyhead – split across factories in Ōtāhuhu, Avondale and Glen Innes – was looking for a new site to consolidate its production. It has tried Manukau, it has tried Māngere, to no avail.

“It was actually him that suggested, why don’t we look down in the Waikato, because we just can’t do it up in Auckland.”

Waikato District mayor Allan Sanson doesn’t play golf. “I’m an old hack.”

But still, he got wind that mattress manufacturer Sleepyhead was sniffing about his district – so he contacted the company’s agent and arranged to meet for coffee.

“We talked a little about what they were looking for and what they wanted to do,” Sanson recalls. “And he was quite sheepish because he didn’t know that I knew. A good politician always knows what somebody’s trying to do in your district!”

Sleepyhead and its parent company Comfort Group wanted to build between Te Kauwhata and Huntly, he was told, so they could get access to both the expressway and the railway. Rail is important to the company: it brings its raw materials into the Port of Auckland, and then ships the finished mattresses out from Tauranga. The company wants its own railway siding off the main trunk line.

Sleepyhead had approached several landowners in the areas, Sanson says. Some were interested, but their land blocks were too small

“I said to them, I do know a location which could suit what they’re trying to do. So I identified this location.

“They then connected with the land owner, had a discussion with the land owner, did their due diligence. There was a number of things that had to happen through that due diligence, like doing some geotech work and stuff like that, before they went unconditional on the land. But they came away relatively satisfied with that and secured the land.”

Waikato District was in the process of its district plan review at the time, so Sanson suggested they apply through that review to rezone their new 176ha block so they could build their 100,000 square metre factory, their 1000 square metre supermarket, their big box outlet stores, their service station, their 1100 homes, their parks and roads and stormwaters and cabling.

They applied to the district plan commissioners for an additional one-week hearing, held in September, and to get an early decision made. The full decision around the district plan review is not expected until around September this year, but a decision on the Sleepyhead factory and estate is anticipated next month.

Sanson says the development is just the sort of solution that is needed to New Zealand’s housing crisis. He welcomes the jobs, and he applauds the Turner brothers’ vision of helping their workers and other locals into low-cost homes.

Too many of the workers in Huntly are commuting in from Auckland, Hamilton or Paeroa, he says, to take specialist jobs such as those at the Genesis power plant. Locals, meanwhile are being forced to leave town for work.

“It’s getting quite expensive to rent a house in towns like Huntly. I’m hearing $450 to $500 a week is not out of the way for three bedrooms.”
– Allan Sanson

(Indeed, in anticipation of building in the Waikato, Sleepyhead took on about eight unemployed Huntly workers and drove them up to the Otahuhu factory in a minibus each day; those men hope their jobs will eventually be relocated closer to their Waikato homes).

“So this offers a huge opportunity for local employment, as a large employer in town,” says Sanson. “And believe it or not, we’ve got a real shortage of housing in the Waikato too, a colossal shortage, so this is important.

“As the housing gap has bitten, whether it be Hamilton, whether it be Auckland, in the metros, it’s actually pushed them out into provincial New Zealand, and they’ve come in here. And it’s getting quite expensive to rent a house in towns like Huntly. I’m hearing $450 to $500 a week is not out of the way for three bedrooms.”

Waikato is a Tier 1 growth district, he says, with real problems with housing availability. The Sleepyhead plan would offer houses for sale, not just to its employees but also to other locals.

Craig Turner has been unequivocal: “A factory worker cannot afford these days to buy a house in Auckland. It’s just impossible,” he says.

“Their drive is around finding affordable housing for factory workers,” Sanson explains. “I understand from Craig that they’ve spoken to the major banks, and they’re looking at a whole different bunch of options to get people into their first homes, whether it’s a lease to own, a rent to own, or whatever. There’s a whole lot of different options.”

“These are opportunities to utilise a process to expedite both housing, both jobs and a pipeline of work for the construction industry.”
– Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

It is this commitment to addressing the housing crisis that explains why the Government (which has utterly failed to build 100,000 houses at the rates it promised in 2017) has added Sleepyhead’s Ohinewai foam factory to its resource management fast-track process, as part of the Covid-19 economic recovery plan.

Minister David Parker’s office has been anxious to emphasise that this should not be read as the Government taking a position on the project – but one might be forgiven for taking that impression.

“We’re trying to improve the supply of both houses and house building opportunities by increasing the supply of both,” he said, when he announced the fast-track in November 2020. “This is another route to assist for those who bring their applications to us.”

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern backed him on the Ohinewai project. “These are opportunities to utilise a process to expedite both housing, both jobs and a pipeline of work for the construction industry.”

Giving back to the community

Craig Turner tells a story about his people. He says, I started off on the factory floor because that’s where all my family start. “I started there, my grandfather put me there. And some of those people I started on the factory floor with, they’re still there, and more importantly, their kids are there, their grandkids are now there. We’ve got up to three generations in the factory.”

That’s Sanson’s account of the story – Craig Turner has gone uncharacteristically quiet as he awaits the plan commissioners’ decision next month.

“We talked about jobs for life,” Sanson recalls, of one of his chats with Turner. “And it saddens me, he says, when I see those people, and the two biggest issues they have as a company is their staff being able to get to work – you know what Auckland’s traffic is like – and the second thing is being able to own their home.”

So Comfort Group has had a programme in place trying to help and support some of their staff into their own houses in Auckland, but it’s been ineffectual. “He says, we would never have got the traction there that we can get down here, trying to do this on a greenfields site.”

“Large-scale manufacturing can’t continue over multiple sites in Auckland. And they can’t get onto one site in Auckland, because it’s just too damn expensive.”
– Allan Sanson

Allan Sanson is a third generation farmer – cropping, a bit of beef, and dairy – but he is unashamedly excited about encouraging industry to flee Auckland and move into Waikato District. He name-checks John Hynds, who talked with Sanson before opening his first Hynds concrete plant at Pokeno 10 years ago. He has a vision to build a mega-factory, consolidating production that has been spread over Auckland.

And there’s the Northgate inland port at Horotiu. And milk company Yashili, the anchor tenant at Pokeno. “After they moved in the rest of it went ‘boof’,” Sanson exclaims, gesticulating to illustrate Pokeno’s dramatic growth.

“Large-scale manufacturing can’t continue over multiple sites in Auckland. And they can’t get onto one site in Auckland, because it’s just too damn expensive. You talk to John Hynds, you talk to the Turners, they’ll tell you the same thing. The issue is around being able to do all their manufacturing, from the start of the foam to the end product going out on rail. It’s so much more easy and productive to do it off one site.”

“Sleepyhead are 100 percent committed to this project. The project team are awaiting the outcome of the rezoning hearing. That is the next step for the project. All the detail of the project, including expert evidence on the reason for it and technical evidence on the land and planned usage were presented at the hearing and are publicly available.”
– Comfort Group spokesperson

We did try to talk to the Turners. We wanted to ask them about local rumours they had gone cold on the project – few locals had heard from them since the hearing in September. Many believe they will proceed with the factory, but drop their housing plans after a report to the planning commissioners expressing serious concern about building an entire new town, halfway between the struggling towns of Te Kauwhata and Huntly.

We wanted to ask why they had not yet applied for their fast-tracked resource consent, after the Government invited them to apply in November last year. And we wanted to ask about changes to the plans, like the outlet stores and the supermarket that no longer appear on the slick website, or the proposed route of the rail spur across a dubious neighbour’s land.

A spokesperson promises Craig Turner will speak publicly once the planning commissioners have announced their decision on whether to rezone the land but for now, the spokesperson would only provide a short, emailed statement.

“Sleepyhead are 100 percent committed to this project,” she said.

“The project team are awaiting the outcome of the rezoning hearing. That is the next step for the project. All the detail of the project, including expert evidence on the reason for it and technical evidence on the land and planned usage were presented at the hearing and are publicly available.”

A difficult balancing act

It’s called a Section 42a Report. It’s 734 pages of analysis by private planning consultancy director Chloe Trenouth, appendices, submissions, peer reviews and technical reports.

But it summarises very succinctly the pros and cons of the Sleepyhead project, as spelled out by Sleepyhead’s project manager Gaze Consulting, and in the submissions from residents, businesses, iwi and government agencies.

The reasons people like the proposal are because they believe it will support the further development of Ohinewai, that the location has good access, the creation of employment opportunities and supply of industrial land, and the social benefits.

There are more reasons that people oppose it. Some say there is insufficient information to understand the development’s impacts; others cite the potential to change Ohinewai’s character, and the effects on transport network and traffic safety, on rural and amenities and environment – including noise, traffic, light, air discharges.

“I’ve been impressed by Sleepyhead actually. They’re a family-owned business and they actively look for folks in their late 20s, who’ve suddenly woken up and realised they haven’t made the best choices as teenagers, and are looking for employment. The company will take them onboard and teach them to read and write and all the things they missed as a teenager.”
– David Whyte

There are concerns about alternative outcomes – for example if Sleepyhead shuts, or if there is insufficient market uptake for the medium-density residential component.

And of course, there are concerns about flood hazard risks, the proximity to sensitive wetlands, and the loss of mineral rights held by Ralph Estates for the underlying land.

What it highlights is just what a vexed set of questions is raised by a project like this – a balance between private and public revenues, diverse community interests, conservation concerns and mitigating the impact of climate change.

That’s also highlighted by David Whyte. He lives immediately across the railway line and expressway, on Ohinewai North Rd. Wearing the hat of chair of the Huntly Community Board, he’s enthusiastic about the economic benefits to the town; wearing another hat as a member of the smaller Ohinewai Community Association, he’s equivocal.

Once, Ohinewai Rd was state highway 1 heading south through to Huntly. There’s a colourful, well-kept primary school, a couple of small businesses, and a dilapidated old restaurant that was recently co-opted by TV-makers filming the post-apocalyptic Netflix drama, Sweet Tooth.

The faded signage, “The Ski Shack”, seems incongruous on the Waikato’s low-lying flood plains, but Whyte loves it; he’s a sci-fi fan.

Now, the road narrows as you drive south past the village; wild grass and thick brush spills out onto the asphalt until the road comes to an end entirely, beneath the embankment of an expressway onramp.

There are those like Malcolm Lumsden who say they rarely go into Huntly now; he takes the expressway straight through to The Base in Hamilton to do his shopping. Others like David Whyte see the Ohinewai and Huntly communities as deeply intertwined.

Whyte, a former research scientist, and his wife live on a five hectare lifestyle block; she goes into town to work; he grows organic fruit that he delivers an hour up the expressway to Mt Wellington every Tuesday.

Right now, it’s rich with heritage apples and a few remaining avocadoes. We stroll the boundary, and Whyte plucks me a small, sweet apple, and a plum each for my three sons.

Huntly is a low socio-economic area so it has all the ills associated with lack of employment, he explains. The development is projected to bring about 2000 jobs to the areas – the factory, plus all the ancillary jobs like the petrol station and other light industrial businesses. “That’s going to do wonders for the local economy.”

He highlights those unemployed locals that Sleepyhead has already employed and is bussing up to the factory in Ōtāhuhu each day.

“I’ve been impressed by Sleepyhead actually. They’re a family-owned business and they actively look for folks in their late 20s, who’ve suddenly woken up and realised they haven’t made the best choices as teenagers, and are looking for employment.

“The company will take them onboard and teach them to read and write and all the things they missed as a teenager.

“That experience kinda sums up Huntly. There’s not a lot of support for students at home; it’s not that parents don’t want to support their kids, but sometimes it’s really hard to do when you’re struggling to put a roof over your head and food on the table. Learning calculus so you can help your kids with it isn’t really a high priority.”

“I love Huntly. It’s a small town, I know everybody here.”
– Mary-Jane Tarver, 18

Still with his Huntly Community Board hat on, he rejects regional council chair Russ Rimmington’s suggestion that the factory and housing estate should be built in Huntly, instead of Ohinewai.

“He doesn’t live in Huntly, he doesn’t know the Huntly area,” Whyte says. “In Huntly we’ve got a river, we’ve got flood plains, we’ve got swamps, we’ve got mine tailings, we’ve got subsidence zones, we’ve got very steep hills. We have no space for development in Huntly.”

From a Huntly perspective, a new satellite community whose residents drive the five kilometres into town to do their grocery shopping, and join the sports clubs, and go to church – that seems ideal. Engaged new members of the community, but without putting pressure on the town’s tired infrastructure.

I get in my car and take the expressway into Huntly, along the once-familiar road overlooking the broad brown river and the twin-stacked power station, past the railway crossing and underneath the faded old DEKA sign.

It’s six o’clock in the evening and the main street is fairly busy. According to the blue LED sign in its front window, Domino’s is “now serving”; Dow’s Burger Bar is now frying; Iskender Kebab House is now grilling. There are plenty of people in and out of the takeaway joints and pubs.

At the McDonald’s on the old state highway, 18-year-old Mary-Jane Tarver and her boyfriend Judas Williams are ordering their burgers and chips, to go. Mary-Jane has lived her all her life, and she loves it. “It’s a small town, I know everybody here.”

She thinks being bypassed last year by the expressway has changed the down – “for the better”.

A couple of service stations and fast food chain restaurants like the McDonald’s are feeling the pinch, she acknowledges, but on the most part she thinks business hasn’t been adversely affected by the loss of through-traffic. Indeed, the reduced traffic makes the streets safer and cleaner.

She would happily bid farewell to the through-traffic, and instead welcome new community members living and working at Ohinewai. “I would support it – it’s something new.”