*** UPDATE ***

Thanks for your support. We had a great response to this request to email the ARC Councilors. To avoid annoying them to the point of anger we have decided to disable this link. If you still really want to email them, here are the email addresses:

mike.lee@arc.govt.nz;judith.bassett@xtra.co.nz;bill.burrill@arc.govt.nz;ccarter@calaw.co.nz;joel.cayford@arc.govt.nz; s_coney@xtra.co.nz;dianne.glenn@arc.govt.nz;brent.morrissey@arc.govt.nz;christine@rankingroup.co.nz;jancolin@ihug.co.nz

 

Here is the email that the Society sent to the Councilors, giving more information and things you may like to say in your email:

 

Dear Councillor

RE: ARC is now the last hope for New Zealand’s most endangered bird

 

I am writing to you on behalf of the Te Arai Beach Preservation Society to request your urgent assistance to stop recent moves by Rodney District Council (RDC) and property developers Te Arai Coastal Lands Trust (TCLT) to open up the Te Arai coastal area for residential development. 

 

These negotiations relate to the resolution of outstanding appeals on subdivision provisions within the proposed Rodney District Plan 2000 (Chapter 7, 2141, 2149). The Auckland Regional Council is a s274 party to these appeals, and we understand that the ARC will consider it position next week on this proposal to increase provision for subdivision at Te Arai.

 

We urge you to continue to support our community and to help us stand firm against moves to gradually weaken the protection afforded to Te Arai.  In particular we ask that the Council:

 

-          Stick with ARC’s original appeal decision to ask that subdivision be a non-complying activity in the Landscape Protection Rural Zone.

-          Defend this appeal in the Environment Court.

 

What is happening?

 

As you will be aware, the dunelands of Te Arai, on the northern boundary of the Auckland region are one of the most ecologically important areas in the Auckland region.  Te Arai is the last long stretch of undeveloped coastline on the east coast of the Auckland region, and as a result it is the last refuge for a large number of endangered species, including New Zealand’s most endangered bird, the Fairy Tern.   Due to its extremely high conservation values, the Te Arai coastline has been designated an Area of Significant Conservation Value (ASCV 116), a Coastal Protection Area (CPA 87), and an Outstanding Landscape. 

 

You also may be aware that in 2002 the previously state-owned forest at Te Arai was sold to Te Uri o Hau as part of a Treaty Settlement.  This land was then onsold in 2004, and is now 75% owned by a consortium of international and Queenstown-based property developers (Darby Partners, the company responsible for the residential development at Omaha, is the primary shareholder).

 

This consortium (Te Arai Coastal Lands Trust – TCLT) recently applied for a private plan change (to the Rodney District Operative Plan) to enable them to create a large subdivision at Te Arai.  Because of the high landscape and conservation values of Te Arai this plan change was opposed by the ARC, the Department of Conservation, Forest and Bird, the Te Arai Beach Preservation Society, the Mangawhai Residents and Ratepayers Assoc. and over 1700 other groups and individuals who submitted against it.   The plan change was declined by commissioners who concluded that enabling greater subdivision at Te Arai would be inconsistent with the Resource Management Act, the Coastal Policy Statement, the Auckland Regional Policy Statement, and the Rodney District Plan.

 

Unfortunately after three years fighting this plan change, our community has recently discovered that the property developers involved, Te Arai Coastal Lands Trust, have also been in negotiations with Rodney District Council to increase the subdivision provisions in the zone set up to protect Te Arai, the Landscape Protection Rural Zone.

 

We are strongly opposed to this move to open up the Te Arai coastline for subdivision, and believe that it is totally inconsistent with the policies within both the District and Regional Plan that are clearly designed to protect Te Arai from this type of development.  Te Arai Coastal Lands Trust originally proposed a subdivision of 1800 houses at Te Arai, and we are strongly of the opinion that if these new subdivision provisions are implemented, TCLT is likely to apply for the maximum allowable number of houses at Te Arai (under the proposed mediated amendment that is likely to be 48), then having degraded the values that the zone was set up to protect (endangered ecology, outstanding landscape, ‘non-urban’ and ‘remote’), they are almost certain to apply for, and more likely to succeed in gaining another plan change under the new plan; enabling extensive subdivision at Te Arai.

 

These moves to increase the potential for subdivision at Te Arai are also totally inconsistent with the conclusions of the Commissioners on the recent private plan change who stated that:

 

-              Subdivision at Te Arai would have significant adverse effects on the high landscape, amenity and ecological values of Te Arai, which are “recognised as being outstanding and regionally significant in the regional planning documents”, (pg. 4) and that

 

-          Environmental outcomes associated with allowing subdivision in this extremely sensitive environment would be “inconsistent with the long established integrated management approach adopted by Council which limits and restricts rather than encourages further subdivision and development in this part of the District” (pg. 5). 

In relation to the Fairy Tern, New Zealand’s rarest bird, and the most threatened of a number of endangered species at Te Arai, the Commissioners summed up by stating that

-              “it would be irresponsible to allow any unnecessary development which is likely to put the habitat further at risk” (pg. 9)

 

We are extremely concerned that there has not been adequate public consultation or adequate assessment of the significant ecological effects associated with enabling greater residential subdivision at Te Arai through this appeals process.  We ask that this issue not be resolved in a rush through closed-door mediation, and that it be allowed to go to Environment Court, to ensure that the significant ecological effects of this proposed change and its consistency with district and regional planning documents are adequately assessed. 

 

The Te Arai Beach Preservation Society is currently in the process of lodging a request with the Environment Court to become a s274 party in support of the ARC in the Environment Court.  Our community is determined to do everything we can to ensure that the significant conservation and landscape values of Te Arai remain protected.

 

The ARC is now our last hope to prevent this move to open up the Te Arai coastline for subdivision.  Please help our community to fight this decision, and ensure that Te Arai continues to receive the protection it requires.

 

Yours truly,

 

 

 

Mark Walker

President, Te Arai Beach Preservation Society