Green belts to keep city contained

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

Auckland's booming but nervous northern neighbour, Rodney District, has gained heavyweight environmental support for putting up ramparts against urban sprawl.

These are likely to include more prescriptive planning controls - including clearly defined green belts with protections for ridges.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Morgan Williams, used a council planning workshop in Orewa on Wednesday to promote a draft report by his office on the management of "icon" landscapes in three overseas communities.

Mayor John Law invited the independent environmental watchdog to make Rodney a test case for adopting lessons in sustainable development from the Peak District of Britain, the Oak Ridges Moraine in Canada and Cape Peninsula in South Africa.

The invitation coincided with the launch of a planning strategy by the Rodney council to keep its district a heavy shade of green, while also allowing for sustainable social and economic development.

Community development leaders, farmers, fruitgrowers and ratepayers' representatives attended.

About 95 per cent of Rodney is still rural, and it accounts for 48 per cent of the Auckland region's green spaces. Its population grew almost 15 per cent to 76,182 residents in the five years to census night in 2001 and is expected to double in 20 years.

The council says in its strategy document that it may have to consider new ways of valuing and rating to acknowledge rural land and the countryside's amenity value beyond dollar terms.

It raises the idea of private parks as in Britain, where landowners in the Peak District National Park receive Government subsidies in return for granting public access and protecting natural values.

But while wanting to put a distinctive edge around every town and village, the document also emphasises a need to promote entrepreneurship and support strong local economies necessary to make living on the land - and caring for it - viable.

"We don't want the creeping border of Auckland coming here with some of those dreadful developments," said Mr Law. "We do not want more of the same in Rodney - we have a chance, we have greenfields, let's get it right."

He expressed frustration with an Environment Court ruling against a council bid to stop a big subdivision at Pt Wells, east of Warkworth, saying the legislative framework needed changing to take more account of the wishes of communities.

Dr Williams praised the council for making a real effort to get to grips with its destiny as a district right at the edge of the country's largest metropolitan area.

This gave his office fertile ground to transplant ideas from overseas.

He described the Resource Management Act as essentially a reactive tool for controlling the effects of development, and said it was up to communities to form and sustain their own visions for managing their limited stocks of "natural capital".