Kākā Valley development step closer after court ruling
Five years after it was first lodged, a plan change allowing housing development in the Kākā Valley is set to be adopted.
This week, the Environment Court issued its final ruling on the controversial Plan Change 28, which was opposed by lobby group Save the Maitai.
The plan change will rezone about 287 hectares of land within Kākā Valley, along Botanical Hill and Malvern Hill, to allow residential and commercial development in the area through the Maitahi and Bayview developments, allowing about 750 homes in total.
Now, one of the developers said they should be able to lodge resource consents applications early next year.
The Nelson City Council had approved the plan change in September 2022, but Save the Maitai appealed to the Environment Court, with a three day hearing held in February this year.
A plan change allowing development in the Kākā Valley has been approved by the Environment Court.
The main concerns were the impacts of erosion and sediment, and flood risks.
In the decision released this week, the court ruled the plan change could go ahead, subject to some changes being made to improve environmental protections.
There was a “relatively low risk from an erosion and sediment control perspective”, the ruling said.
“There remains erosion and sediment risk associated with development on the site, but the magnitude of this risk is small and it is appropriate to manage that risk by way of plan provisions which, amongst other matters, govern future resource consenting.”
The decision was welcomed by Maitahi Village project director Andrew Spittal, who said their vision for the area hadn’t changed during the five year plan change process.
“We’re going to do a development and we’re going to do it to the highest possible level … we feel truly vindicated that at every step our vision has been tested and at every stage has been accepted.”
The changes ordered by the court had been put into the documents ready to go to the council for formal adoption in December, he said.
The Maitahi part of the development in Kākā Valley would amount to about 350 homes, of which about 190 would be part of a retirement village, and would see about $400 million spent in the local economy.
They had continued working on plans for the area, and were excited to finalise the designs which had a large focus on community and the environment, Spittal said.
The resource consent application would be ready to lodge in the first quarter of 2025, and they were looking at whether they would use the fast-track option available to the project under the Fast-track Approvals Bill currently before Parliament.
Save the Maitai spokesperson Peter Taylor said they would keep working to make sure any development in the area had minimal impact on the environment.
Throughout the process there had been a “tightening of the rules”, though not to the full extent they had requested, he said.
“It’s sort of 50-50 wise for the environment.”
The proposed development for the area had changed through the years, so it was unclear if the provisions in the plan change would even be relevant any more, he said.
“In some sense, we don’t know what the effects of the Environment Court decisions might be.”
The group would continue to monitor the development and lobby for good outcomes, he said.
The decision has been welcomed by Nelson mayor Nick Smith.
“I am relieved this controversial development is now resolved as our city desperately needs certainty and more housing. Other housing was being held back over whether this development was proceeding or not.
“Five years is too long and too expensive. We need to find better and faster ways to resolve these planning disputes,” he posted on Facebook.
Taylor said their group had spent about $350,000 on the legal process, while Spittal said the developers had spent about $5m, including paying for independent commissioners.
The judgement said the “applications for costs are not encouraged”.
By Warren Gamble, Nelson Mail
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