Auckland Council will proceed with plans to transform A.F. Thomas Park into a major flood defense facility, following extensive negotiations with Takapuna Golf Course that ultimately produced a unified design approach.
The project directly addresses the catastrophic flooding that struck Milford and Wairau Valley during Auckland Anniversary weekend 2023, an event that claimed two lives and inflicted the city’s worst flood damage in that area.
The devastating 2023 floods exposed the vulnerability of communities in the Milford and Wairau Valley catchment. In response, Auckland Council’s technical teams examined more than 100 different flood mitigation strategies, seeking solutions that could prevent future tragedies while serving multiple community needs.
Takapuna Golf Course was identified as the optimal location for flood storage infrastructure.
The Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee endorsed the initial business case in April, proposing an integrated approach that would combine flood storage with recreational facilities. The concept called for converting roughly half the park into a recreational wetland capable of storing a minimum of 550 million liters of floodwater, while preserving space for a nine-hole golf course.
However, the committee also requested evaluation of an alternative proposal from Takapuna Golf Course, which sought to maintain the full 18-hole layout while achieving equivalent flood protection.
The golf club’s first alternative involved distributing numerous smaller stormwater storage ponds across the park. Tom Mansell, Auckland Council’s head of sustainable partnerships for healthy waters and flood resilience, explained that this approach proved unworkable due to prohibitive costs and maintenance complexity.
Recognising the club’s commitment to finding a workable solution, the council granted a one-month extension for a revised proposal. The subsequent design submitted by the golf course demonstrated remarkable similarity to the council’s original concept, employing comparable land formation techniques and stormwater detention methods.
An eight-step technical assessment framework evaluated both proposals against criteria including feasibility, cost-effectiveness, and environmental impact. The process revealed that despite starting from different perspectives, both the council and golf club had arrived at fundamentally similar solutions.
“Both the council proposal and the golf course’s revised proposal have similarities in terms of placement and the method of storing stormwater on the site,” Mansell observed. “We’re confident in the single design concept that’s come out of the feasibility assessment and are ready to move this project forward for our communities.”
The collaborative process demonstrates how community stakeholders can work together to address critical infrastructure needs while preserving valued recreational amenities. The final design prioritizes flood protection for vulnerable communities while maintaining recreational access to the transformed park space.
