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The past few months have seen a range of measures announced to protect the land and marine life along the Hibiscus Coast including a major planning change to address coastal hazards, a proposed ban on shellfish harvesting along local shores, and new marine protected zones in the Hauraki Gulf.
All three initiatives aim to boost the resilience of our coastal community and residents have a chance to share their concerns through public submissions.
Auckland Council’s upcoming Plan Change 120 (Housing Intensification and Resilience) will reshape where and how development occurs across the region. It introduces stronger rules to steer buildings away from high-risk areas for flooding, coastal erosion and inundation. In practice, this means more stringent consent rules for new builds in hazard-prone coastal zones and even downzoning some of the most vulnerable areas to limit development to single houses. (Hibiscus Matters, October 20).
Contrary to posts circulating on social media, this does not mean Council is seeking to buy up homes at a discount on rezoned coastal areas.
Auckland Council’s Policy, Planning and Governance director Megan Tyler says she can assure the community that Council will not be removing anybody from their land as a result of Plan Change 120. To say that we are is a total fabrication.
“Plan Change 120 responds to community concerns about building and development in areas that are at risk of floods, Tyler says. It is correct that this plan change proposes stronger planning rules to manage this, so new development and neighbourhoods become more resilient to floods and other natural hazards over time. The council has been advocating for this change on behalf of communities since the severe weather of 2023”.
Plan Change 120 will also remove the previous “blanket” intensification that allowed three-storey housing in most suburbs in Plan Change 78. Instead, growth will be focused around town centres and public transport routes.
Residents will soon get a say on the proposal, which will be publicly notified on November 3, with submissions open until December 19.
Hibiscus Coast residents are encouraged to review the plan and make a submission. Detailed information is available on the Council website.
Submissions are now open for Auckland Council’s Plan Change 120, and you can now use the map viewer to see what the changes mean for your home. View map here
You can also learn more about this at the AKHaveYourSay website.
In tandem with land-use changes, Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust has formally submitted an application under Section 186A of the Fisheries Act for a two-year prohibition on harvesting all shellfish and seaweeds from rockpools along the eastern coastline of the Rodney and Hibiscus Coast local board areas. In essence, this would temporarily ban the gathering of seafood from the intertidal rocks along the coast, allowing these depleted populations to recover.
Ngāti Manuhiri chief executive officer Nicola MacDonald says the need for intervention “has become more urgent as pressure on our rocky reefs and intertidal areas has escalated”.
The Trust also seeks to place a rāhui (traditional Māori prohibition) over the affected area as a cultural measure, and now wants a government-backed closure to reinforce it. The rāhui and the 186A closure together would blend Māori customary practice with legal regulation.
The Ministry for Primary Industries is currently seeking public feedback on this proposal until November 28. Submissions can be made by emailing or writing to Fisheries New Zealand (details are on the MPI website). If approved by the Minister, Shane Jones, the closure could be in place by this summer, with Fisheries officers and trained local volunteers enforcing the no-take rules.
Meanwhile, a historic expansion of marine protected areas in the Hauraki Gulf has just come into force with direct implications for the waters off Whangaparāoa. In late October 2025, Parliament enacted the Hauraki Gulf Marine Protection Act, implementing the biggest increase in Gulf marine protection in more than a decade. The total protected area in the Gulf has now nearly tripled from just 6 per cent to about 18 per cent of its area. This was achieved by extending two existing marine reserves and establishing 19 new protected zones – including 12 high protection areas (HPAs) and five seafloor protection areas (SPAs).
One of these new protected zones lies right on the Hibiscus Coast’s doorstep. The waters around Tiritiri Matangi Island are now designated as a High Protection Area (with an overlapping Seafloor Protection Area).In an HPA, no recreational or commercial fishing is permitted. Even non-living materials like rocks or driftwood cannot be removed. Boating, swimming, kayaking and diving are still allowed, but fishing lines and gathering buckets must stay out of these waters. The adjoining Seafloor Protection Area bans seafloor-disturbing methods such as bottom trawling or dredging, while still allowing low impact fishing methods in the SPA waters above.
For local boaties and fishers, the immediate “usage impact” is the need to know and respect the new protected boundaries. Markers will be updated on marine charts and the MarineMate app to help the public identify no-take zones. Hefty penalties apply for illegal take, so when in doubt, it’s best to check the latest maps.
The new protection areas will be monitored and enforced by Department of Conservation (DOC) rangers with support from Fisheries New Zealand officers.
