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Minor skirmishes are still taking place between local iwi, surfers and boaties over plans for a plush new marina at Whangamata.
Twelve months after the Whangamata Marina Society won a long and hard-fought battle to secure resource consent, self-appointed watchdogs and critics of the marina have forced Trade
Me to shut down nine advertised auctions for marina berths, each priced at between $175,000 and $250,000.
That is because the berths do not exist, as construction of the marina has not started.
Whangamata Marina Society president Mick Kelly would not reveal the original price people had paid for the right to a berth, but all 205 had been sold "years ago."
Demand for a spot at the marina was hot.
"There are 35 people on a waiting list, and there's another 32 people waiting to get on the waiting list," Mr Kelly said.
He was aware that some parties had attempted to sell their berths on Trade Me. The project has been delayed may times but tenders for seafloor dredging and construction of the channel's rock wall closed before Christmas and the winning firm should be announced early this year.
The society aims to finish the project by March next year, although the marina building that would be alongside moored boats may not be finished until the following June.
The design was recently distributed among locals.
Almost immediately the plans raised the ire of long-time marina critics, the most vocal of who is local surfing personality Paul Shanks.
Mr Shanks, spokesman for the Whangamata Surf Break Protection Society, told the Herald that it had become obvious that many conditions imposed by the Environment Court would not be adhered to, as set out in the Whangamata Marina Society's design plans.
"We never believed they could build economically inside those resource consent conditions, and we still don't believe they can go inside the rules."
Plans show a marina building that will be significantly bigger than the provisions set down in consent conditions, and a fuel facility that was not in the original plan put before the Environment Court.
Local iwi Ngati Hako had asked surfers for their input and were taking their concerns about the project to Thames Coromandel District Council, Mr Shanks said.
Mr Kelly conceded the design plans included facilities that were not part of the approved conditions. But appropriate applications would be lodged with the council early this year, he said.
There was a good argument for having a fuel facility at the marina, he said.
"When the original plans were done there was one [fuel facility] already down at the wharf, and that's why we never factored another one in.
"But that's now gone, and there's only one service station in town.
"Even when there were two service stations in town, when there was a fishing tournament on, there was pandemonium on the streets with people queuing up for fuel."
Mr Kelly admitted that the design also had provision for a building that would occupy 350sq m of land, significantly bigger than the 50sq m building in the resource consent.
A new resource and building consent for the larger facility would be lodged, he said.
A "numerical" analysis of the lower harbour and surf bar had been done with the help of the University of Waikato. The modelling factored in tidal flows that would exist in conditions with, and without, a marina.
It showed the marina "would make no measurable difference to water flows and sediment transport on the [Whanga] bar", he said.
But Mr Shanks is adamant the famous surf bar will be affected.
"They'll be dredging 6000 cubic metres from the channel for the next 30 years. Sediment is a finite resource, and if you don't return it to the environment you'll have major problems in the future."
