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Ten months after Waste Management lodged its application to build a landfill in the Dome Valley, the public looks set to be able to have their say at last on the controversial proposal from next week.
Waste Management filed its resource consent application in May last year to build and operate the landfill and also requested a private plan change to have the site and surrounds rezoned from rural production to special purpose (landfill precinct).
However, no one could make submissions until both applications were publicly notified, which was delayed while Auckland Council sought further detailed information on Waste Management’s plans.
Principal project lead Warwick Pascoe said at the time, public notification would only occur when Council had determined that enough information had been provided to enable people to be fully informed as to how they might be affected.
Council was due to confirm the public notification date of Thursday, March 26, as Mahurangi Matters went to press. If that date was missed, notification will happen on April 30.
Due to the large amount of information in both applications, the period when interested parties can make submissions is being doubled from 20 to 40 working days, with a closing date of Tuesday, May 26 if notified on March 26.
As soon as public notification occurs, all relevant information will be available for download from the Council website, and hard copies of the updated application information will be available at Wellsford War Memorial Library, and the Warkworth, Orewa and Graham Street (Auckland CBD) Council service centres. Submissions can be made online or via a special submission form available from Council.
Mr Pascoe said people could also write their own submissions, but the forms were being provided to make the process easier and to ensure submissions were legally valid. People without internet access will be able to visit their local library and download a form from Council’s website, with assistance from a librarian if required.
“Please note that the private plan change and resource consent application are going through separate processes, and people will need to lodge separate submissions if they want to have their say on both of them,” he said.
Protest group Fight the Tip, Save the Dome has asked Council to hold a community information session to advise people on exactly what’s involved in making a submission. Executive member Michelle Carmichael said it would share a skeleton version of its own planned submission at any such meeting.
“We hope that sharing our group and Council information will mean that anyone interested in making a submission will feel more confident to take part in the process,” she says. “It is important that we all take this opportunity to voice our concerns.”
