'Loss of cultural landscape' expected if Waiheke Island marina plans go ahead, court hears

Wednesday, 28 February 2018

Environment Court Judge Laurie Newhook at Kennedy Point on Waiheke Island, where a marina is planned.

Waiheke Island residents have gone to the Environment Court in a bid to stop a 186-berth marina being built on the island in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf.

The community group, Save Kennedy Point (SKP), and island resident Ron Walden are appealing against Auckland Council's consent for Kennedy Point Boatharbour Limited to construct the marina on the southern coast of the island.

Environment Court Judge Newhook, centre, with commissioners Anne Leijnen and Ian Buchanan at Kennedy Point.

Environment Court Judge Laurie Newhook and commissioners Anne Leijnen and Ian Buchanan visited Kennedy Point on Monday, the first day of the week-long hearings.

Written evidence has been lodged by 24 local people who support SKP's efforts to stop the marina, while four members of the Kennedy Point Marina Supporters Group have filed evidence.

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SKP supporters Paul Carew and Rob Morton raised concerns that the floating attenuators could fail in a storm, as they did at Lyttelton marina in 2000.

Marina company principal Tony Mair said the design of the floating breakwaters for Kennedy Point marina was significantly different, and similar structures had survived a hurricane off North America.

Mair said 700 people had expressed interest in a marina berth by December 2017.

The marina, which would occupy 7.3 hectares of Putiki Bay, would be 'an asset to the local community', Mair said in written evidence.

However, Piritahi Marae representative Paora Toi Te Rangiuaia said the area featured ancient Māori pā and other historical sites and was still used for harvesting seafood.

'The loss of our cultural landscape because of this marina development is something we deem unacceptable.

'The appetite for private empire building within the public commons is diametrically opposed to the island's and Piritahi ethos and a blatant disregard of community and home,' Te Rangiuaia stated in written evidence.

While representatives from Waiheke's Piritahi Marae oppose the development, Ngati Paoa Iwi Trust, which is based in the Waikato but has mana whenua status on the island, has not opposed the marina.

SKP's planning expert Mark Arbuthnot challenged whether there was a 'functional need' to build a floating marina car park for 72 cars, a floating public building and decks within the bay.

SKP's ecology expert Manu Bird said the marina would impact the endangered little blue penguins which live in the breakwater at Kennedy Point.

Concerns that sediment could build up in the marina area and contaminants from antifouling paints on boats could harm the marine environment were also raised by SKP's coastal processes expert Shaw Mead.

However, planners for the council, marina company and marina supporters group said the floating car park and buildings were a necessary part of the development and were justified within the bay.

Council and marina company experts said impacts on penguins could be managed through methods such as monitoring and providing artificial burrows or nest boxes in the seawall, and the risk from contaminants would be 'low and acceptable'.

SKP's landscape architects John Hudson and Sally Peake stated in written evidence that a marina in any location would be inappropriate, considering Waiheke's character and values, but the council's architects disputed that.

The marina car park would be accessed from a wharf about 80 metres from the SeaLink car ferry ramp.

About 600 vehicle trips a day to the marina are expected.

The marina company plans to widen Donald Bruce Rd for about 110 metres from the marina access.

Auckland Transport's Sreevidya Radhamani said in written evidence the road widening would need to extend further to allow marina traffic to safely pass cars queueing for the ferry.

SKP has raised more than $200,000 from events and donations to pay for the legal battle against the marina.

Plans for another marina at Matiatia on Waiheke Island were turned down by Judge Newhook in December 2015, after the community raised more than $430,000 to fight the development.