Posted: 01 February 2007
Marsden Pt stormwater plan consents granted
The Whangarei District Council has been granted a raft of resource consents designed to help it better manage stormwater in the rapidly growing Marsden Pt area over the next three decades.
The District Council applied to the Northland Regional Council for eight consents linked to a Stormwater Catchment Management Plan for the Blacksmiths Creek and Marsden Pt catchments.
A two-member NRC Hearings Committee – chaired by Cr Lorraine Hill – heard the WDC’s application in Whangarei in mid-December last year and delivered its decision granting the consents this week.
Much of what was formerly rural farmland in the Marsden Pt area (an area of 584 hectares in two catchments) is now zoned for industrial/commercial and residential development.
The WDC’s catchment management plan is designed to ensure an integrated approach to stormwater, “rather than each development being carried out in an ad hoc manner by a developer”. It also aims to reduce the likelihood of flood damage in the area.
On that basis, the NRC granted the consents, noting that adverse environmental effects from the proposed “comprehensive stormwater system will be no more than minor”.
The consents include three land use consents, two water permits, two coastal permits and a discharge permit. They will expire in mid-2038 at the same time as the related stormwater consents for the recently opened, multimillion dollar Marsden Cove development.
Cr Hill says the shared expiry date will enable a comprehensive review of consents in the catchment at that time.