Residential Development Motuarohia

Obtaining resource consents for a residential redevelopment in a complex coastal environment.

Client:        Developer

Sector:       Private

Services:    Planning & Policy, Environmental, Landscape & Urban, Resource Consents

The 4Sight team were approached to provide planning, landscape and engineering advice for the redevelopment of a family holiday property on Motuarohia Island. We provided a range of project services including:

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• Initial resource management scoping and feasibility advice;

• Attended pre-application meeting;

• Advised on consultation strategy with iwi, neighbours and Department of Conservation;

• Collaborated with wider consultant team (architects, coastal engineers);

• Prepared landscape and visual assessment;

• Prepared engineering services assessment;

• Prepared joint coastal permit and land use consent application;

• Worked through iwi consultation and further information requests during processing; and

• Secured set of workable, fair consent conditions for the client for both the coastal permit and resource consent application.

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The property was subject to several complex issues – including being an Outstanding Natural Landscape in a coastal environment with a significant local iwi interest, next to a highly popular Department of Conservation Reserve.

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Our approach was to do our homework at the front end of the project, making sure that we had all the right consultants on board preparing the inputs necessary to support a successful application. We also made sure we were talking to all the key stakeholders early in the process – securing early support from both councils and the Department of Conservation was crucial. Our project philosophy was ‘thorough preparation equals no surprises for the client.’

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4Sight is proud of the result obtained for this project – both the coastal permit and land use consent were granted on a non-notified basis close to anticipated timeframes, despite the high profile nature of Motuarohia Island and the potential for public interest. The final conditions were fair and reasonable and the 10-year consent timeframe achieved for the land use consent gave the applicant flexibility with the staging and financing of the project. We also achieved the maximum coastal permit timeframe of 35 years for the new boat ramp.