Ocean Beach Coastal Protection & Historic Landfill Removal

Our experienced planning team stepped in to:

• Identify the relevant resource consent triggers under the Regional Coastal Plan for Southland 2013 and the Invercargill City District Plan 2019, and outline activities that did not require resource consent, including through a review of rules under the proposed Southland Water and Land Plan. We worked through cross-boundary issues and regulatory interpretation questions, including confirming the correct MHWS line to apply to the proposed works. This required assessing whether the mapped MHWS (and mapped CMA boundary) or the recently surveyed MHWS should apply. We reviewed the applicable planning documents, considered the implications, and engaged early with Environment Southland and Invercargill City Council to confirm the appropriate approach.

• Provide specific feedback at Working Group meetings, with further updates, planning notes, and Q&A support as needed.

• Track design changes and advise on associated works, including the 4m wide temporary access track across the dune bank to enable construction machinery to access the beach and reassess the resource consent requirements to reflect the updated design and the resulting changes to consent triggers.

• Assess and confirm the relevant entries on Environment Southland’s Contaminated Sites Register (Selected Land Use Sites Register) as recorded at the time, and confirm the site’s planning and statutory context, including zoning (Rural and Industrial 3 (Large) Zones), its location within the Coastal Environment and the CMA, the Statutory Acknowledgement for Rakiura/Te Ara a Kiwa (Rakiura/Foveaux Strait Coastal Marine Area), and the presence of Unformed Roads, (Outstanding) Natural Features and Landscapes, an Archaeological Site, and an Esplanade Reserve, as well as identifying the portion of the site within public conservation land (‘Conservation Area: Bluff’) and noting that Ocean Beach adjoins the boundary of the Motupōhue (Bluff Hill) Mātaitai Reserve.

• Advise on the applicable provisions, including how the Environmental Reserves Omnibus Management Plan 2021 applies to the Ocean Beach Esplanade Reserve (Local Purpose), and on triggers under the Resource Management (National Environment Standard for Assessing and Managing Contaminants in Soil to Protect Human Health) Regulations 2011.

• Provide planning advice on the technical information required to support the applications, including cross-checking information across the technical reports.

• Prepare the viewpoints assessment submitted with the applications.

• Arrange an additional pre-application meeting with Invercargill City Council, provide an early working draft of the land use consent application for their feedback, and advise Environment Southland.

• Advise on affected party approvals and information requirements for applicants under the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 – potential public notification was an early risk given the scale of the works, the sensitivity of the receiving environment, and cross-boundary issues.

• Prepare and lodgeresource consent applications with Invercargill City Council (overall a non-complying activity, requiring a robust ‘gateway test’ assessment) and Environment Southland (overall a discretionary activity).

• Secure approvals from owners/occupiers and mana whenua (including the tangata tiaki/kaitiaki for the Motupöhue (Bluff Hill) Mātaitai Reserve), notify and seek the views of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu as a customary marine title applicant group, advise the Maritime Manager/Regional Harbourmaster on the proposal, and obtain confirmation from Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga that any impacts to archaeology are to be managed under Archaeological Authority.

• Manage informal and formal (section 92) requests for further information, including matters arising from Invercargill City Council’s expert peer review, where contamination and effects on coastal processes were key issues, and liaise with the project team’s technical experts to provide a coordinated planning response to the section 92 request.

• Review each Council’s draft conditions and provide feedback to ensure there were no conflicts and that they were workable for DOC.

Post-consent, we continued to support DOC through end-to-end advice on conditions, from pre-commencement through post-completion. This included:

• Providing planning advice on the practical requirements of the conditions, with reference to both the lodged applications and Councils’ decision reports; reviewing contractor documents such as the Construction Site Management Plan for the project; reviewing technical expert documents; and liaising with Invercargill City Council’s RMA – Monitoring & Plan Effectiveness Team on potential changes, which were accepted.

• Preparing condition-discharge summaries, mapping each condition requirement to the relevant supporting material, providing the planning context, and confirming that all requirements were satisfied to support efficient processing.

Providing Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga with confirmation that conditions of the Archaeological Authority had been met.