Posted: 11 May 2007
One Tree Point ‘beach renourishment’ approved
Ongoing work to build-up eroding Marsden Bay and One Tree Point beaches with tens of thousands of cubic metres of sand can continue, a Northland Regional Council Hearings Committee has decided.
The Whangarei District Council (WDC) already holds a number of resource consents allowing it to restore the beaches, but has now gained new consents for a variety of related operational work needed for the project.
The latest eight consents – granted by a two-member NRC Hearings Committee recently – allow the WDC to build two groynes between One Tree and Paradise Points and extend several stormwater pipes out to the new edge of the “renourished” beach.
The consents also allow the WDC to carry out an initial 50,000 cu m of beach renourishment between One Tree Point and Paradise Point and continue to apply up to 10,000 cu m of sand annually as needed. It can also apply up to 5000 cu m of sand annually to Marsden Bay, where the bulk of a beach renourishment project has already been completed.
Hearings Committee Chairperson Lorraine Hill says the WDC had initially proposed establishing a network of 29 groynes along One Tree Point beach as part of the work, but after concerns were raised by a number of submitters, had since cut the number of groynes applied for to just two.
She said separate resource consent applications would need to be made if further groynes were required at any stage in the future.
Cr Hill noted that the placement of the sand as proposed would help reduce the erosion of coastal cliffs in the area.
She says the WDC is currently preparing a separate comprehensive stormwater management plan for the entire One Tree Pt catchment which would address another concern by submitters as to whether the stormwater pipelines associated with the renourishment were adequate given the future growth anticipated in the area.
The Committee’s decision is now open to appeal for 15 working days.