Located on the coast in southern Hawke’s Bay, Te Ikatiere is characterised by highly erodible coastal hill country posing risks to land stability and water quality. Management of these risks is particularly important due to the park being located along the coastline of the Te Angiangi Marine Reserve. View Consultants was engaged to prepare a Management Plan for Te Ikatiere – a block of land recently purchased by the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council primarily for restoration purposes. The project involved the identification of stakeholders and consideration of issues important to the management of the block which enabled strategic objectives and policies to be developed pertaining to sustainable land use, biodiversity, stakeholder engagement, mana whenua engagement, education and public engagement. These informed an operational management plan to achieve both resource management outcomes in the context of the applicable regional planning documents as well as both positive social and cultural outcomes.
Preparation of a business case to identify the resourcing requirements for implementation of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s Plan Change 9 – a catchment-based plan change involving four of the region’s main river systems. This involved a critical review of the proposed plan change and draft implementation plan to identify resourcing needs followed by interviews with key staff from various teams across council to understand resource capacity and work that formed part of their business as usual. This allowed additional resourcing needs to be identified based on an expert planning review of implementation needs and a true reflection of Councils capacity so that a business case could be put to council and funding provided within the Long Term Plan to ensure effective implementation of Councils objectives and new approaches embodied with the proposed plan.
Working together with a range of other technical experts, View Consultants was engaged as the planning expert for a primary industry organisation involved in the Water Conservation Order (WCO) process for the Ngaruroro and Clive Rivers. This work involved preparation of expert planning evidence initially for the Special Tribunal that heard the applications, and subsequently the Environment Court, who dealt with the appeal on the decision of the Special Tribunal.
View Consultants was engaged to undertake a Social Impact Assessment (SIA) of the impact of the Tukituki Plan Change on the catchment community. The Tukituki Plan was the regions first catchment based plan change, and became operative in 2015. It introduced new production land use rules – the first time such rules have been implemented in the region. The SIA involved semi-structured interviews with key informants from various backgrounds who lived within the catchment, as well as the identification of social indicator data, that helped to provide a picture of the state of the community– information such as employment data, school rolls, property sales data and utilisation of social services. This data establishes a baseline against which future assessments can compare as the assessment is supposed to be repeated every 5 years. The need for the assessment to be repeated meant that it was critical that a robust methodology was followed, and detailed within the report.
Preparation of submissions on behalf of a Primary Industry Group on various regional plan and district plan changes, as well as regional policy statements throughout the North Island. This work has generally involved the need to understand the nuances of a wide range of different growing operations to enable the impacts of proposed planning frameworks pertaining to outstanding water bodies, ground and surface water quality, land production and land use planning to be understood, while still retaining a focus on national consistency in respect of submissions lodged by the organisation across the country, as well as the requirements of national policy statements and standards. Work has involved the preparation of submissions, collaboration with other technical experts, preparation of expert evidence, hearing attendance and participation in mediation processes (both assisted by the Environment Court, and others undertaken independently of the Court).
Focussing on large group replacement processes and more complex resource consent applications, consent processing commissions have involved the assessment of various discharge activities to air, water and land, as well as lapse date extensions for large infrastructure projects.
Preparation of a (replacement) resource consent application for the Napier City Council to discharge stormwater to the Ahuriri Estuary. The project involved numerous workshops with key stakeholders to inform the development of a condition framework that set down a road map towards an improvement in stormwater management and water quality under a multifaceted approach involving physical works, improved site management, social awareness, and ongoing collaboration during implementation. Working with a range of experts and various parties a 25 year resource consent was secured without the need for a hearing.
