Save the Maitai opposition to Nelson subdivision reaches Environment Court

The Kākā Valley, off Nelson's Maitai Valley, where a planned large subdivision has created large-scale opposition. Photo / Tracy Neal

A mighty row has made its way to court over a planned large-scale housing development in a quiet river valley.

A residents and concerned citizens group has for years been loudly opposed to the rezoning of 287 hectares of privately owned rural Nelson land off the Maitai Valley to make way for up to 900 new homes, some of which would be targeted at first-home buyers.

The rezoning of the land at Kākā Valley Botanical Hill and Malvern Hills attracted large opposition before Nelson City Council approved it on the recommendation of an independent hearings panel.

The opposition group Save The Maitai then generated enough funds to take their fight to the Environment Court, in an appeal against a decision over the private plan change initiated by the developers, the Maitahi/Bayview consortium.

The appeal hearing opened today before Judge John Hassan, Judge Kelvin Reid and Commissioner Kathryn Edmonds with a welcome to the rohe led by a kaumātua of Ngāti Koata, which is a partner in the joint venture.

Ngāti Koata viewed the area as taonga for all Te Tau Ihu iwi (top of Te Waipounamou/the South Island tribes) and the wider Nelson community and said the proposed development was on ancestral land upon which they wished to house their people and address historical circumstances that have arisen from dispossession.

Moo with a view: The ridgeline above Nelson's Malvern Hills where a planned new subdivision would extend. Opponents argued it was highly productive land while the developer said it was capable of accommodating 18 cattle. Photo / Tracy Neal

Save the Maitai said it supported Ngāti Koata’s aspirations but concerns remained around the extent of the impact of urbanisation on the area.

The appeal submissions were focused on two key points, including erosion and sediment control from earthworks associated with the development and the impact on productive land.

The hearings panel that decided on the rezoning found there was sufficient information and evidence before it to demonstrate the erosion and sediment effects could be properly managed.

Save The Maitai challenged those findings and raised concerns in its appeal about the potential impact on environmentally sensitive areas valued for their recreational and amenity values, such as the Maitai River that flows through Nelson City and out to the tidal estuary known as Nelson Haven.

Counsel for the applicant, Sally Gepp, said while Save the Maitai preferred that the rezoning didn’t happen in the last of the undeveloped valleys close to Nelson, the group understood it was unlikely to achieve its goal of overturning the decision.

However, it wanted a say in how effects might be mitigated, which was the motivation of the appeal.

“They are flying in the face of the Nelson Policy Statement on urban development, which doesn’t provide for their feelings to be prioritised over housing,” Gepp said.

“They don’t want the river or the haven to be harmed and it seems to them that there’s a lack of information over the river and haven bearing the risk.”

The lawyer for the applicant (the consortium) John Maasen said the development remained subject to the resource consent process.

“This is not a master planning process but a structural planning process,” he said of the legal case so far.

Maasen said tangata whenua iwi (the Māori tribe or tribes from the area) valued and recognised sustainable management of natural and physical resources and Ngāti Koata had led the way in achieving high standards of guardianship on land that had been cleared and used previously as “a poor sheep farm for 100 years”.

“Kaupapa [principles] have guided Ngāti Koata’s role in forming the plan change.”

Maasen said what was planned would help to improve the area and make it more resilient and that the plan change had identified areas within the zone where development was to be avoided and the areas where existing values needed to be protected.

“These provisions have no precedent in Nelson,” he said of the city bounded by steep hills upon which much development had already happened.

Maasen said Ngāti Koata understood it had been a “highly contentious process” and it thanked Save the Maitai for the friction that had helped it “create a better stone” as a foundation for the plan.

The two sides were on opposite sides of the fence over whether the land might fall within the National Policy Statement for highly productive land and therefore be inappropriate for subdivision use.

The appellant argued it was productive land while Maasen said the area fell outside that description.

“What we have here is land isolated within a site that can accommodate 18 cattle.”

Maasen said development on what was considered non-productive land would reduce pressure on what was highly productive land used for housing.

Resident Richard English joined the appellant in opposing the development and a proposed connection to Walter’s Bluff above Nelson Haven, that would see traffic past his house increase from 600 vehicles a day to an estimated 2500.

The hearing continues.

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.