By WAYNE THOMPSON
Rodney District Council feels it is being stung with a $310,000 bill for offsetting likely environmental damage from a roading project.
The sum - and a $100,000 bond - is being demanded by Auckland Regional Council officers as a condition of granting resource consents for a shortcut to the Whangaparaoa Peninsula.
But Rodney's lawyer, Rob Fisher, told an ARC consent hearing yesterday that it did not accept the regional council had the power to impose such a condition.
Rodney also maintained that the ARC was not giving it enough time to get the $70 million PenLink project up and running.
Mr Fisher said ARC officers were insisting that resource consents be tagged with a lapsing period of six years and a duration of eight years.
A 10-year lapse was more appropriate, he said, partly because of the time needed to choose a private firm to design, build and run the toll-way.
"Even if work is substantially commenced towards the six-year lapse period, it may not be possible to complete the work within the eight-year duration of the consent."
The council must obtain resource consents for the project before calling for bids from developers and private financiers.
The project comprises a 6.9km arterial road from East Coast Rd to Whangaparaoa, a 540m bridge over the Weiti River, and widening of Whangaparaoa Rd for 3.5km.
Mr Fisher said nine volumes of information presented with the application included assessments of environmental effects from the bridge and roadworks, and an environmental management plan.
Next week, the commissioners will hear 58 submissions opposing the road. Concerns include effects on the Weiti estuary and Long Bay-Okura Marine Reserve, and loss of quality of landscape and lifestyle for Stillwater residents.
Yesterday, as the five-day hearing began, Business Whangaparaoa launched a petition with the aim of showing commissioners next week the amount of support for the road.
A video of the route was shown to the hearing by Mike Foster, of the council's consultants, Beca Carter Hollings & Ferner.
He said PenLink would save 5.4km and six minutes between the Northern Motorway and Whangaparaoa, and offer safer travel than the congested Whangaparaoa Rd.
ARC officers said environmental effects included loss of streams through culverting, more sediment runoff into waterways and the visual impact of the bridge.
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