| Environment
Court - Interim Decision announced. Sandspit
SOS members and their supporters in the community are naturally disappointed by the
interim decision of the Environment Court to grant the resource consent for the land based
facilties of the proposed marina.
All parties should be aware that the consent will not be
granted until an agreed set of conditions has been approved by the Court.
SSOSI is now working on a robust set of conditions that
will protect the interests of the community as well as we can negotiate, and ensure proper
management of a marina IF it is eventually constructed.
SSOSI accepts that the Court was confronted with a
difficult decision, complicated by the fact that the ARC decision approving the
water-based activities had not been appealed.
SSOSI and the community were therefore caught in one of
the many traps created by the hasty amalgamation of local bodies into the Auckland
Council. We are victims of the law of unintended consequences in so many ways.
After Auckland Council abandoned its original stated
intent to defend the appeal against the Rodney Commissioners' refusal to grant consent,
SSOSI became the only body to represent the interests of the Sandspit community and the
public good.
In practice that mean't that SSOSI had to deal with a
surpisingly antagonistic Auckland Council and it's expensive lawyers, who were effectively
working for the Marina Society interests.
This was a "David and Goliath" contest. We
believe we are looking at the end of the beginning ... not the beginning of the end.
Can they get the cash together ?
Before the marina can be started there are a few hurdles
for the Marina Society to jump over.
- Properly detailed site-plans have to be submitted to the
Court.
- Detailed engineering plans will add to the $1.3 million of
their members' funds already spent.
- A Community Liason Group with SSOSI representation will be
formed to monitor compliance and conditions. The CLG is expected to operate for the life
of the Marina, 35 years, or until we no longer need it.
- The diminishing membership of the Marina Society must be a
concern as it implies that some prefer to write off $5-10,000 rather than risk $100,000 on
a hole in the tide.
- The cost of disposing the 100,000 cubic metres of dredged
sand and rock off-site is conservatively estimated at $5-10 million. Researched estimates
put the maintenance dedging and deep-water disposal at $60/m3. Capital dredging
is more expensive. Disposal to land at Ferguson Wharf reclamation was charged at $48/m3
before access was closed. Costs vary with location, but all marina operators are concerned
about the financial impact of escalting costs.
- It is little wonder then, that the developers are desparate
to defray their disposal costs by dumping their dredgings on the Sandspit Reserve using
the dubious pretext of "weatherproofing the Spit" by raising it's level. The ARC
consent prevents them from dumping sands in the tidal lagoons, so they want to reconstruct
the whole reserve to save a few miserable dollars. They want to destroy the last natural
part of Sandspit Reserve for their own private purposes.
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SPECIAL ALERT FOR ALL SANDSPIT RESIDENTS !
You have received misleading information from SRRA
(Sandspit Resident and Ratepayers Association) whose Chairman, Alex Fowler, was present
and cosy with SYCMS (Sandspit Yacht Club Marina Society) throughout the Environment Court
(EC) Hearing.
The interim decision to grant land consent to
SYCMS is dependent on agreement on conditions being agreed with SSOSI. They have not been
agreed upon yet !
SRRA has completely confused the proposed Sandspit
Reserve Restoration Plan (a former SRRA initiative) with an artificial Bird Roost which
SYCMS has agreed to construct as part of any marina consent.
The discussion at the 2011 SRRA AGM had nothing to
do with the Artifical Bird Roost. The AGM discussion was about the proposed Sandspit
Reserve Restoration Plan which had been agreed unamiously by the SRRA committee, but was
dumped when the SYCMS took over the SRRA
SRRA says that, at the EC, SSOSI "Tabled ..
that they wished to cordon off the reserve of the Spit from pedestrians and their
dogs" WRONG. This was a question from the Judge to SSOSI experts,
who responded that it would not work.
SRRA is correct that "any development that
limits our use of an area needs to be seriously looked at". The marina is one of
those developments. It will limit use of the reserve for everyone, which is why the
proposed Sandspit Reserve Restoration Plan had the full support of the previous SRRA
committee until the hostile takeover of the SRRA by SYCMS.
The SRRA committee has no mandate to reduce
costs for SYCMS by proposing dumping 100,000 cubic metres of dredgings on the spit without
consultation with SRRA resident members.
We encourage you to tell them so ....
VOTE YES for bird
observation area. VOTE NO to further degradation of the Sandspit Reserve.
Email us for further information
The SSOSI Bird Watch Event Sunday March 11th.
The weather was great for ducks, but was enjoyed by over 100 visitors.
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