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Eight months after the shock news that a new regional landfill dump is being planned for the Dome Valley, Waste Management has lodged its formal resource consent applications with Auckland Council.
The applications went in just days before local iwi and residents voted unanimously that a rahui should be placed over the Mahurangi forestry and Springhill land bought by Waste Management last year.
The Beijing Capital-owned waste giant’s proposal consists of more than 800 megabytes of material, including 10 separate technical reports on a range of environmental, geotechnical, engineering, economic, social and traffic aspects, plus a set of detailed plans.
Waste Management had originally planned to make its submission by the end of last year, but managing director Tom Nickels said preparing the documentation had taken longer than expected.
Council’s principal project lead for premium resource consents, Warwick Pascoe, said the applications would be reviewed by Council specialists, and he anticipated that more information would need to be sought from Waste Management before the applications could be publicly notified and interested parties make submissions.
Waste Management is also making a bid to have the landfill site and surrounds rezoned in the Unitary Plan from rural production to special purpose, in the hope that it can have the land designated as an Auckland Regional Landfill Precinct. Mr Nickels said that plan change request was due to be lodged by the end of next month.
“Our aim is have both the plan change request and the resource consent publicly notified together,” he said. “This will mean that the community can submit feedback on both applications through the one public notification process.”
It would also mean that the resource consent applications and plan change request could be dealt with at the same hearing.
Mr Pascoe stressed that no one could comment or make submissions on the proposal until it was publicly notified, which would probably happen in the last quarter of this year.
“When it is notified, people will be able to access the application via our website, as well as make submissions online,” he said.
However, Waste Management’s plans can be studied in the meantime. Hard copies of the resource consent applications, assessments and plans can be viewed at four Council premises – Wellsford War Memorial Library, 13 Port Albert Road; Warkworth Service Centre, 1 Baxter Street; Orewa Service Centre, 50 Centreway Road; and in the city at 35 Graham Street, Auckland.
People can also copy the material electronically to a laptop, or any portable device with a USB port, via a USB flash drive available at the same addresses.
“Normally, copies of the application are not made available until such time as notification has occurred,”
Mr Pascoe said. “However, we have done this now in recognition of the high level of public interest.”
The applications reveal that a roundabout off State Highway 1 is being proposed for the landfill entrance, which would be just south of the Springhill Estate entrance, and space for more than 100 large rubbish skips would be sited just inside the entrance in a bin transfer area.
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