CLEVEDON CARES

For release: 6 March 2007

Canal Project's Opponents Welcome Resumed Hearing

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Opponents of the intensive housing project proposed for the rural Clevedon Valley have welcomed the setting of a clear date for the resumption of Manukau City Council's hearing into the matter.

The suggested development, known as the Wairoa River Maritime Village, would see 297 new homes, accommodating up to 1,000 residents, built on man-made canals close to the river's mouth, to the South-East of Auckland.

The Council's Hearings Committee is to resume its proceedings on Monday 12th March, following a recess over the holiday period. The resumption is to allow the developers to present further information on the wastewater treatment and to complete their exercise of the 'right of reply' to objections raised by the by the scheme's opponents.

"We're very pleased that a clear date has now been set for the resumption of the hearing. Our hope is that, once the hearing is completed, Council will move quickly to withdraw the proposed change to the District Plan required to facilitate the canal project," says Mary Whitehouse, spokesperson for community group, Clevedon CARES. "The developers have proposed a wastewater system whereby each of the 297 homes is to have a septic tank, with effluent pumped to a treatment plant and then to an upland pasture block, from where it is expected to trickle away until it is dispersed.

"In view of the area's topography, we have our doubts as to whether the wastewater scheme would work. However, the effectiveness or otherwise of this scheme should be irrelevant, given the overall inappropriateness of the proposed canal development.

"In effect, the development would be an urban suburb and quite out of keeping with the surrounding countryside. The addition of up to 1,000 new residents would place significant pressure on the infrastructure and community of Clevedon village and its hinterland, jeopardising their rural character and generating significantly greater levels of motor traffic on our winding and potentially dangerous country roads," she says.
Mary Whitehouse adds that the proposed Plan Change may be illegal, as it fails to give effect to the relevant planning instruments, as required under the Resource Management Act.

"The RMA establishes a hierarchy of planning instruments, with district plans at the bottom. Higher up the chain is the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement, which calls for avoidance of subdivision development in coastal areas that have not already been compromised. Similarly, the Auckland Regional Policy Statement forbids the expansion of rural and coastal settlements outside existing limits.

"The effect of these and other planning instruments would cast doubt on the legality of the Plan Change, irrespective of both the great weight of substantive arguments against it and the fact that the canal development is opposed by the majority of local residents," says Mary Whitehouse.

Amongst submissions to Manukau City Council from local residents last year, those against the Proposed Plan Change outnumbered those in favour by a ratio of six to one.

ENDS

www.clevedoncares.co.nz

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