A Papamoa land owner says the government's trying to seize his land for a fraction of its worth.
The New Zealand Transport Agency is offering to pay $30,000 for 1.5 acres to build an interchange for the Tauranga Eastern Arterial says, Richard James.
If they don't accept the offer, Richard expects they will go to court where NZTA will acquire the land under the Public Works Act.

The James property is required for the Sandhurst interchange that will provide Papamoa access with State Highway Two.
'I'm not very happy with the offer,” says Richard James.
'It works out to about $5 a square metre.
'We have been waiting for a month for them to get back. I ring them and get the answer machine, we are only a couple of weeks away from when the good faith bargaining period ends.”
NZTA's Tauranga manager Rod James says he met with Richard a couple of weeks ago.
'It's not appropriate to discuss the details of any particular property and what's being offered,” says Rod.
The property is in the process of being revalued, says Rod.
He's in meetings today and expects to have more information tomorrow.
The James own 14ha of ‘residential A' zoned land in a block that originally stretched from Papamoa Beach Road to State Highway Two. The adjacent block, now the Papamoa Gateway development, is 20ha, with a projected value of $360 million. On the James' western boundary there's eight hectares worth about $115 million.
The Tauranga City Council bought one acre from Papamoa Gateway last year to be used as a reserve for $860,000 says Richard.
The James' land, that is going to be part of the interchange, has been blocked off since 1997 with no access and last year the council took 7000m2 for drainage purposes – effectively land locking the 6000m2 NZTA wants for the interchange.
The drainage issue is something they have been onto the council about since 1998, says Richard.
'We put in a submission in 1998 saying they had to take care of the stormwater. We knew they were going to have problems, but they do things on an ad hoc basis.”