Argument over Atamai eco-village development

April 21st, 2010
By David Armstrong

An argument has broken out between various people associated with the Atamai eco-village, which is being developed on Mytton Valley at the back of Motueka. Friends of Atamai are upset by what they say is a derogatory article in the Nelson Mail. (Read the article here)

Motueka Online will not attempt to get to the bottom of this, but rather will publish a summary of the article and the comments made since by people associated with the development. For background material on the village and the concept driving it, read the news item published on this website back in November 2009.

Essentially, Atamai will be a self-sustainable village with up to 50 sections for high-quality, energy-efficient houses, no bigger than 150 square metres. Owners pay open-market prices for freehold titles and shares in common areas, including farming land and a village square with a cafe, bakery, library and a multi-use community centre. Cars are not allowed.

So far, resource consent has been granted for the first 10 sections, three of which have sold. Sale agreements are in place for a further four. The developers hope the next batch of 20 sections will become available later this year.

The Nelson Mail reported on Monday, under the sensational heading "Village mired in strife, Charity status abolished", that the organisation behind the development has been struck off the Charities Commission register, deregistered on April 9 for failing to file returns.

It also chronicled a falling out of some of the founders back two years ago, due to "differing opinions on how they wanted to achieve their goals". The article said the departed founder, Peter Myers, said that "the organisation lacked transparency".

One of the remaining founders, Nelson businessman Jurgen Heissner, was quoted as being critical of three neighbours who opposed the village from the start. The Nelson Mail said it spoke with one of those neighbours, former commercial lawyer Nick Davidson, who described Mr Heissner's reported comments as "laughable" but declined to comment further.

The article also included a paragraph which, to most readers, will appear quite obscure, referring to an account set up at Nelson Building Society. There was no other comment as to why this was significant. It said: Last week the Nelson Building Society asked Atamai Village Council to remove a reference from its website offering a "term deposit scheme" for people wanting to help the village or save for a section deposit. Manager Ken Beams said approval had not been sought for it to be there. The society had provided a mortgage on one of the sections purchased and that was the limit of its involvement, he said.

Since the article appeared, Biddy and Adrian Myers (no relation to Peter), who have loaned funds to the project, have written an open letter supporting Atamai, including the following:

"Last year, with the initial planning consent for the buildings completed, we felt it was time that our verbal support should be translated into financial capital to facilitate the next steps. The suggestion that we put money up was specifically our approach to the Atamai organisers and we agreed that they involve a Building Society to assist with our intention.

"We are getting very favourable terms for the money invested and are fully aware of the terms of the loan, ie. that it is not guaranteed by the building society. We are happy with the security arrangements Atamai has arranged for the loan, so we are at a lost to hear why there should be rumours of misleading investors.

"I do hope that you can sort out what is intended by those spreading these rumours of lack of transparency and disingenuous financial dealings. It would seem that there is an element of disgruntled spite that wants to manipulate the media to generate a sense of distrust.

"We would like to state that the opposite is the case - we are happy with our dealings and have every confidence in the project, and, along with many others that we know, would like to see it succeed."

Another founder, Jack Santa Barbara, told Motueka Online, "Aside from the former partner in the project, Peter Myers, who is mentioned in the article, the only other parties we are aware of who have issues with the project are a small group of neighbours on the ridge above the Atamai site. We have been attempting to communicate with them, and have even suggested mediation, but they have unfortunately declined."

Jack also wrote an open letter sent to Friends of Atamai. In it he says that Atamai has been deregistered as a Charity, and as mentioned in the article, it was because of a late filing of a 2009 financial return.

"While it is unfortunate that this happened, Atamai was already moving away from being structured as a charity. While we will want charitable status in the future for purely educational activities, we learned over a year ago that the Charitable Trust that was originally established to do the development of Atamai Village was likely not the proper vehicle to either do the subdivision development, or to own the commons.

"The Charitable Trust would not allow the common lands to be owned collectively without a complex and costly prospectus to be developed annually. The best legal advice we now have is that an Incorporated Society is the appropriate legal structure, and we have been pursuing this option for over a year (it is not being done as a result of the media coverage or being deregistered - the legal details just take ages to work out)."

He says that while it does not state this, the article implies that there have been some dealings with investors or donors that 'lacked transparency', that somehow 'other people's money' was put 'at risk'. He points out (and Motueka Online agrees - see our comment above) that the article presents no evidence of this other than the claims of Peter Myers, who was previously involved with Atamai, and is the only person to benefit financially from Atamai to date.

"Atamai has consistently acted in a transparent and financially responsible manner, and in the best interests of current and future members of Atamai Village, and followed the legal advice received," Jack wrote. "Atamai has never solicited nor accepted donations from anyone, and all financial dealings have been transparent and fully protected for those few parties lending funds to the project."

He added that contrary to what is stated in the article, he and his wife Joanna are still very much involved with the village project.

"Atamai has never used its charitable status to claim any tax benefit. We will defer the Charitable Trust Status for the time being, until such time as Atamai is in a position to engage in charitable (educational) activities. However, the Trust itself still exists and is an appropriate vehicle for developing the properties it owns. These are the subdivision properties for individual titles (as distinct from the common lands). The Trust will do the development of the subdivision and the new Incorporated Society will own and manage the commons."

[Motueka Online welcomes any other comments from people involved in this argument. Please use the "Comment" link below.]

Comment by Skye Davidson:
[Posted 22 April 2010]

I have previously been a great fan of Atamai and the concept of eco-villages. However the recent Mail article has started to highlight some of my recent concerns that have started to arise. Biddy Myers' strange letter seems to indicate there obviously was some odd deal going at the NBS so it's no wonder they pulled the plug and it seems more than coincidence they did it just after Atamai lost its charitable status.

I am not a great believer in co-incidence especially with financial transaction - No smoke without fire. Would be real interesting to see where this all ends as a lot of people could get hurt if there have been dodgy going ons.

Also I note that in all recent communication Jurgen Heisnner is described as either the founder or the visionary, this is definitely not true as anyone who is aware of Atamai would know. Peter Myers was the visionary and set it up. Jurgen came into the picture a lot later.

Comment by Dr Ralph Merreck:
[Posted 22 April 2010]

As an enthusiastic supporter of the concept of a sustainable lifestyle which reduces the impact of humankind on the earth's infrastructure, I am concerned about the viability of this venture. The original Director is no longer involved because of personality conflicts. He has left the project in the hands of two individuals who appear to have no experience whatsoever in property developments.

What has transpired to date is a textbook example of individuals believing that past successes can be transferred elsewhere which would lead to achieving the same results. Property developments need property developers with experience and a record of accomplishment. The principals would be well advised to consider this necessary element before a complete botch-up occurs.

Comment by Jack Santa Barbara:
[Posted 26 April 2010]

For the sake of efficiency, I thought I would wait for a few responses before commenting. I thank those who made comments for doing so. And many thanks to those of you who have emailed messages of support.

The first point to make is that the Atamai Village project is already a success. Over 100 ha of contiguous land has been purchased to provide the resource base for the village, including food production, which began 2 yrs ago. Much of the acquired land is already zoned Rural Residential, meaning that the owner has the right to apply for a resource consent to build residences.

Of the first 11 titles already approved by the local council, at least 7 are spoken for. In addition, at least 5 parties have indicated their keen interest in some of the titles to be made available when the second subdivision application is approved. This success has occurred with little beyond word of mouth marketing, and in a "down" real estate market.

A number of business opportunities are emerging in the village which can provide livelihoods for some village residents, and a business incubation service is being developed to support those opportunities. This service makes it possible for people with useful skills but limited financial resources to become part of and make a meaningful contribution to the project.

Another important feature of Atamai is that what would normally be "developer's profit" in creating the titles will be left with the trust. The intent is for these funds to be used to improve the commons as a demonstration site for charitable educational purposes. This makes Atamai very different from typical development projects.

The deregistration of Atamai's charitable status was due to a late filing of the 2009 financial return - as is clearly stated on the Charities Commission website. My understanding is that this is not an uncommon occurrence and hardly newsworthy. The trust doing the development continues to operate, as charitable status is not required at this time. Once more infrastructure is in place to provide a demonstration site, Atamai will reapply for charitable status.

Most of the 100 plus hectares will remain as common land for use by villagers. The most appropriate legal structure for multiple ownership of common land has been clarified and that structure will soon be in place. Atamai has been working on this new structure for about a year, long before the deregistration occurred - the two events are unrelated.

The arrangement with the local building society (its name was never on the Atamai website as implied in the news article) was made with a private party who are quite happy with it. And the building society is happy to continue doing business with Atamai.

The current success of the project is a testimony to the incredible skills and hard work that Jurgen Heissner has brought to it. Before I became involved with the project I visited Jurgen and Peter Myers back in January of 2007. As someone who has hired hundreds of people over my working life, it was clear to me at that time that Jurgen was the person who would make it happen. A few months after I actually became involved in the project later that year, Peter initiated his departure and a separation settlement was reached among the parties involved. The split was difficult and did pose financial challenges at the time. But it is over two years since Peter was involved, and during those two years the project made significant moves forward under Jurgen's able leadership.

Atamai Village is a success story, albeit, not yet complete. It is not uncommon for such projects to have their ups and downs, but what is actually happening on the ground, and the dozen or so families directly involved, attest to how well it is going. Our understanding is that the steady pace of Atamai's development compares favourably with other similar ecovillage projects.

The Nelson Mail article contains several mis-representations of what was said to the reporter. I personally never said my wife and I were no longer involved with the village. I said we were no longer on the board of Atamai because we resigned in order to make a loan to the project. We did not want to be on both sides of the transaction, to ensure transparency and accountability - the very things the article insinuates Atamai was violating. However, I made it very clear to the reporter that my wife and I were still very much involved with supporting the village and do so on a daily basis. The implication in the article is that we left the project because of some problems the project was having.

I understand from Jurgen that what he told the reporter was also misrepresented.

Adrian and Biddy Myers (no relation to Peter) wrote a letter to the reporter telling her that they were fully aware of the terms of their loan to the local building society, and quite happy with it. This letter was written prior to the article being published. Yet this important piece of information was not mentioned in the article.

Atamai is to date a successful eco-development project that will continue with its plans, and welcomes inquiries from any parties genuinely interested in living well sustainably, in community. More detailed information about the project is available at www.atamai.co.nz.

Whatever challenges Atamai encounters along the way, we are mindful that the project is for generations to come - a small step for a sustainable future.

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