MARTIN DE RUYTER/STUFF
Golden Bay Mohua Affordable Housing Project executive officer Chris Bennett in 2022 of the with one of the project’s completed pensioner flats in Tākaka.
A request from an affordable housing project for a letter of support put members of the Golden Bay Community Board in a conundrum of whether to endorse a development on flood prone land that had no guaranteed resource consent.
Board members at Monday’s meeting were initially confused as to whether the Golden Bay Mohua Affordable Housing Project (GBMAHP) was asking for a letter of support for specifically the Reilly St site or for general development.
The project planned to built 14 flats at the site.
Councillor Celia Butler said there was a policy in the Tasman Resource Management Plan (TRMP) which covered off the situation of flood prone land which was not zoned for development, and this policy said council had to avoid development in those places.
READ MORE:
* Dog missing after ute overturned in fatal crash found alive 11 days on
* Water torture: Motueka an outlier as a town with no swimming pool
* The sometimes 14-hour ‘hell hard’ day for life-saving treatment
This TRMP policy had been “brought out quite late in the piece” and appeared to “trump the other policies so there is no opportunity for litigation”.
“This is unfortunate because they did a lot of work in the early stages of the application to mitigate what they thought other policies would allow them to do,” Butler said.
Tasman District Council group manager environmental assurance Kim Drummond said there was “ongoing conversation” between the consenting team and the applicant, and the applicant had “come back with some material that might open the door for that situation to be reviewed in a more favourable light”.
MARTIN DE RUYTER/STUFF
Shirley Harrison gets the keys to her new home in Tākaka built by the Golden Bay/Mohua Affordable Housing Project,
Deputy chair Grant Knowles said the project had a “yellow light” which post Cycle Gabrielle had switched to red.
“It puts us in an awkward position because we would be going against council policy to have a letter of support. But at the same time I do want to support a project like this … maybe location is the key issue here.”
Hill said the board had to be careful.
Braden Fastier/Stuff
Golden Bay Community Board deputy chair Grant Knowles said he wanted to support the development of housing, but it would be awkward to potentially go against council policy. (file photo)
“If we think we’re going to write a letter of support in the hope of giving the consenting team a nudge, that’s naive and bad. We have to be very clear in what we are doing.”
Chair Abbie Langford asked if they were simply supporting the project’s application to build units.
“We’re not saying we will put them in Reilly St against council’s wishes. We’re just simply supporting the project. We don’t get to say whether they meet consent conditions.”
The Golden Bay Mohua Affordable Housing Project aims to build 14 flats in Tākaka for seniors and/or persons with disability.
It has been shortlisted for a $3m grant by the Government for this project, and submitted a resource consent application to the Tasman District Council in January.
The project is working with the council on addressing its concerns over flood risk mitigation “as all of Tākaka township is on a flood plain”, the GBMAHP said in a newsletter.
Butler, after seeking details in Bennett’s correspondence, clarified that the project was asking for a letter of support about the general need for housing and the level of deprivation, rather than supporting that particular development.
The board made the decision to review details in the GBMAHP’s request, and draft a letter following that.