Sign In / Register
A major new Warkworth housing development and a 219-hectare solar farm in Wellsford are among the 149 projects included in the coalition government’s controversial and long-awaited Fast Track Approvals Bill announced last week.
Warkworth South Waimanawa developer Classic Developments wants to build a new township with 1200 new homes on 160 hectares of land near Valerie Close, and was going through Auckland Council’s private plan change process prior to Fast Track.
Energy Farms Ltd plans to install a 150,000-panel, 76MW solar farm on farmland south-west of Wellsford and applied for Fast Track Approval earlier this year, rather than applying for consent via council (MM, May 27).
The list of projects also includes an application by Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust and Te Ārai South Holdings Ltd for 420 homes, as part of an integrated development plan for the Te Arai precinct and regional park, and a proposal from NZTA Waka Kotahi to plan, design and deliver an alternative State Highway 1 route to the Brynderwyn Hills.
The Fast Track Approvals Bill is expected to go before Parliament for its second reading in November and be passed into law before the end of the year. Each project will then be assessed by an expert panel whose members can apply relevant conditions, according to Regional Development Minister Shane Jones.
“As we’ve publicly said before, the government is also recommending to the Environment Committee that expert panels have the ability to decline approval for projects,” he said.
“The expert panels will include members with technical expertise relevant to a project, expertise in environmental matters (and where relevant, conservation), and the Treaty of Waitangi.”
Wellsford residents fighting the solar farm said its inclusion in the bill confirmed their worst fears.
Spokesperson Brett Montefiore said if the project were fast-tracked, affected homeowners would find it very difficult to be able to put forward their objections to the independent expert panel.
“We would’ve had a far better chance of being heard if we were able to submit to and do a presentation through hearings at Auckland Council if Energy Farms applied for their resource consent,” he said.
“Before it was included in the bill, at least we had our local board and councillors we could approach.
Now with it being in the big machine of the government, you get very few replies from the minister. You generally just get automated responses.”
He did get one email from Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop, saying the government was “committed to making it easier to access and use our abundant green energy to achieve a low-emissions, high-growth economy and to put New Zealand on track to meeting its climate change goals this decade”.
Montefiore said the email basically boiled down to “the government is going to do what they’re going to do, regardless”.
He added that solar farms were “probably good”, but the location had to be right.
“It might not be good for the 60-odd households that are directly looking at it. I can’t imagine they’ll be very happy with that at all. We’ve already had a 20 per cent decrease in property values.”
Meanwhile, groups opposing projects that had been expected to apply for fast-track approvals, but did not appear on last week’s list expressed guarded relief this week.
Fight the Tip chair Sue Crockett said members of the anti-landfill group were “cautiously pleased at this time” that Waste Management NZ’s proposed Dome Valley dump was not one of the 149 projects.
However, she said there was no guarantee it wouldn’t happen further down the track, especially if current High Court appeals went against the company.
Friends of Pakiri co-founder Damon Clapshaw also said it was a relief that McCallum Bros’ had not applied to continue sand mining off Pakiri and Mangawhai, though he voiced concern that the company was planning to shift its operations further up the coast.
“Fast track was the big concern, so I think we have done okay. It could have been a lot worse,” he said. “But the Bream Bay offshore sand dredging proposal, without seeing the detail, appears to be a copy-rinse-repeat of the flawed dredging application at Mangawhai-Pakiri, which was rejected by hearing commissioners and on appeal to the Environment Court.”
