Residents slam developers

A pumice mine disguised as an industrial subdivision is how the lawyer for local residents describes redevelopment plans at Gargan Road in Tauriko.

Tauriko Business Estate, or TBE2 Ltd, is seeking resource consent to take 1.1 million cubic metres off the Gargan Plateau.


Tauriko developers are accused of pumice mining. Photo: Boffa Miskell.

They are opposed by the last three Gargan Road land owners who say the developer hasn't complied with the terms of the existing consent, and that the effects of the mining operation on them will be more than minor.

The fact TBE2 Ltd intends to export more than half the pumice excavated from the plateau makes it a mining operation, says residents' lawyer Jason Welsh.

He also accuses the developer of attempting 'a plan change by stealth”.

While the application is to 'increase the areas of developable industrial land” by around 3.46 hectares, that increase is to be achieved by removing the escarpment that is protected by the District Plan.

'At best, the application is overly cute,” says Jason, 'and at worst it is deceptive, misleading, and disingenuous.”

The application is so short of detail that it is, in reality, an exercise in advocacy for a proposal rather that a considered evaluation of its effects on the environment, says Jason.

Extracting 1.1m3 of pumice, then exporting 60 per cent of the mined material from the site is quite clearly a different activity to mere earthworks, he says in submissions.

According to Jason, the principle activity is mining. The extension of industrial land is the outcome, once the mining is concluded.

He compares it to Newmont Mining in Waihi, who are seeking earthworks consent to establish a lake then sell gold as a by-product of the necessary earthworks to establish the lake.

Mining is provided for the rural zone, but not the general industry zone or the Tauriko Industry Zone, which puts into question the existing pumice operation.

The volumes to be mined weren't included in the application to Tauranga City Council, but they are in the Regional Council consent application, where they are referred to as ‘proposed pumice pit operations'.

Expert witness Owen Burn says the TBE2 Ltd mining operation will also change the form of the escarpment so that it no longer complies with District Plan maps.

While the application offers revised plans, Owen says he cannot see how the changes can be made to elements of the district plan in the context of an application for resource consent.

Owen is a director of Green Group Ltd - a resource management consultancy specialising in infrastructure and statutory planning.

A geologist and town planner, he has more than 25 years' experience in resource management planning and is a member of the Resource Management Law Association and a certified hearing commissioner.

The Tauriko Industry Zone in the District Plan is the subject of an Environment Court Decision promoted in 2007 by TBE2 Ltd's previous iteration, the New Zealand Retail Property Group.

It resulted in former rural residential properties being re-zoned as industrial. The industrial zone's application to the Gargan Plateau and the impact on residents was carefully considered by the environment court in the appeal, says Owen.

Particular consideration in the decision was given to the amenity values of the escarpment of the Gargan Plateau and the amenity of the properties and residents who occupied the plateau.

The Judge's decision noted he was assured by the NZRPG that the eastern escarpment of the Gargan Plateau is not intended to be modified, though some of the improvement planting contemplated for the Kopurererua Stream may well involve the escarpment's lower slopes.

The outcome was a detailed and complex suite of provisions clearly aimed at achieving a carefully managed process of conversion of land for industrial use, which respected the landscape and amenity values of the Gargan Plateau and the escarpment.

Implicit in the provision is the need to maintain acceptable levels of amenity for the residential uses that remain on the plateau, says Owen.

The residents say this hasn't happened. In fact, dust and noise have badly affected the amenity of their properties.

There are no services, so they cannot sell the land for industrial development, while residential value is dropping and the developer has not consulted with them.

Hearing Commissioner Alan Watson is expected to reserve his decision.

You may also like....

3 comments

Busted

Posted on 01-04-2015 15:35 | By YOGI BEAR

Looks like a cunning plan has been revealed, the consequence of the left hand does not know what the right is doing, at least pretending so anyway.


God give us strenght!

Posted on 01-04-2015 15:38 | By s83cruiser

The moaners and the groaner and the NIMBY's in this city make me sick.!!!! Get a life people. It's that sort of attitude the would have stopped the wheel being invented. Give it time and the hill will be gone and all grassed over and in 6 months you won't remember what it looked like. Progress is progress and the city needs that. Would the protesters prefer a rubbish tip on the land.??? Oh and by the way BEFORE you get into my neck about it I am soon to be a home owner in the Lakes and this is right in my line of view and you know what...IT DOESN'T BOTHER ME.


s83cruiser

Posted on 02-04-2015 08:12 | By expatAucklander

Yep, people expect progress but they don't want anything to change! The nimby protesters seem to be putting up opposition for oppositions sake, some of their arguments have no grounding whatsoever (legally or reality).


Leave a Comment


You must be logged in to make a comment.