Abuse of the RMA

At the moment various companies are using the RMA to delay and put conditions on competitors building sites.

In particular Westfield and the foodtown group have been taking everyone from pak n save(Wairau) to private land owners (westgate) to environment courts. Even going as far as challenging council zoning designations to slow down development of rival business centers.

Westgate has also taken the Fox outlet mall (glenfield) to court, challenging their resource concent, costing them money and delaying the development.

The councils seem to be powerless/ disinclined to do anything.



Just another problem with the application of the RMA.

For some reason all the links that come up in google are from scoop...

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0403/S00639.htm

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU0605/S00639.htm

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU0602/S00056.htm

Process gone wrong?

I am no expert, but I'm inclined to agree.

The Balmoral McDonalds looks likely to go through, as does the Piha cafe - both cases where developments should never have been allowed off the ground, and where the RMA has fallen short.

Yet, as you say, in cases where there isn't actually major public interest in halting the development, it's being used as a commercial weapon.

I agree, this one has been going on for ages. There should be a stipulation in the RMA that any protests or submissions by people who could be considered competition to the development need to be heard and dealt with differently.

They know they only need to hold it up a certain length of time, not even win, to end it and send the guy bankrupt. (unless he's got more backers now - I think it was a privateer originally)

R

Yeah well the private owner near westgate was told by his lawyer it will probably take 7 years to get through appeals against westfield.

But there is so much money in it for the lawyers!

I agree bob, I don't think the RMA was ever intended to operate as a commercial weapon used by companies to stomp out the competition. That said, I don't know much about environmental law, i always found it to be the most tedious area, second only to local government law.

i meant stamp out not stomp out

Yes, seems to have been coopted for all the wrong reaons - what have been the major amendments to the RMA since National introduced it in 1991?

Nothing it seems

http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1991/0069/latest/DLM230265.html

Long overdue.

well there have been amendments almost every year since it's enactment, including last year.

hrm maybe my search abilities are failing or the legislation.govt.nz search/website sucks (it is rather piecemeal).

what have the major ones been?

heh well figuring out which were the major amendments would involve more than a mere glance at the legislation and in light of my already stated disdain for environmental law i'm not volunteering for the task

yeah that website is difficult to search. i use a subscriber database which lists all the amendments chronologically so it's easy to see how many there was.

It would seem to me that limiting the ability of one particular group to legal process would be difficult. It would require a bit of a rethink of the process and a law that the person(s) in charge may take the interest of the people bringing the work into consideration when looking at complaints.

Having every part of a decision questioned is the basis of law and as BG said, is where the money for the lawyers is. Having a more expedient process may result in more wrongs of a different sort.

BUT that said, the northern gateway project was held up for years by a couple of people who live in the coromandel... the solution raised the cost through the roof and the supposed small area of natural bush that is to be protected isnt even that special.

It would be nice if for big cases we had an investigatory judge/panel rather than the adversarial one we have at the moment. But like i said - big changes.

I'm all for the Piha cafe - it's about time they had something decent out there

Completely agree. Such a beautiful beach and nowhere decent to get some food and a drink.

ffs. i thought you of all people would oppose it.

there are a billion cafes in the world
how many unspoilt beaches are there?

your thinking is the same that would kill an endangered animal because the fur coats look great

you call Piha unspoilt? pull the other one

do you even know where this cafe is to be located?

nowhere near the beach

sandra coney strikes me as someone who thinks Piha is her personal fiefdom

Last time I was out at Piha there was a perfectly good little beach shop there selling ice cream, hot chips etc??

but not a quality sit-down affair that you would or could go to at the end of a perfect day and enjoy a meal with a glass or two of wine

you forget where i come from vadinho. back home it ain't a beach UNLESS there is a cafe right there on the waterfront. but that's by the by.

the idea that putting a cafe near a beach somehow renders it 'spoilt' is quite retarded. facilities don't ruin beaches they compliment them (when done properly of course). i don't quite know the details of the piha cafe proposal but as NR has said it's nowhere near the beach itself and I do know the cafe has good people behind it. piha desperately needs a nice cafe.






trapper the beach shop is shit. if there was ever an eye sore ruining the entire landscape out there it's that tragic little shop.

it's in the old telephone exchange, will be 108 sq m and seat 35 approx

here's an artist's impression

The people who spoil it are the people who go down and drop their rubbish all over the place. A sit down cafe seems like a good idea.

Any development != bad development.

At least in this case people who were objecting actually have a legitimate interest in it.

ps its better that development happens slowly rather than trying to hold it off for too long then the area changing too quickly.

this naysayers' pdf has a picture of the proposed site looking towards lion rock

usual ott emotive claptrap from competing businessmen


http://www.piha.co.nz/Piha-DeCaf.pdf

Where does one find RMA submissions like this for Auckland City?
Soho Square is currently being dragged through the process, going up just behind my place - would like to review the initial application and status. Can't find it on council website?

you'd have to go to council offices I think and best to start at the ones off of Wellesley St W

I tend to agree with BG here. a cafe would compliment the area - which is already visited by hordes of people anyway

Actually you don't get it.
It is exactly this kind of ‘shit’ little beach shop ‘eye sore’ that makes a place like Piha so perfect.

Go back to Ponsonby for your wanky café!

BG and Trapper both make good points

a modern cafe that offers a good service for some would make piha a better place to visit

for others maintaining piha as is makes for a far more attractive proposition

in the end the place will be ruined (developed) - it is the current kiwi way

does no one own a thermos anymore?

it'll only add capital value to their already expensive real estate out there that they can all crow about over their lattes in their brand new cafe

in case you hadn't noticed there are already multi-million dollar 'baches' out there so I really do not think that Piha qualifies as some pristine unspoilt paradise of a beach and I do think that some locals would like to be able to enjoy a cafe dinner near home rather than risk driving back 20 km's from Titirangi or further after a couple

looks like things are nogo on the soho goslow


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10490261

yeah was funny to walk past the site on way to get coffees and paper on Saturday morning then have it on front cover!

relatively "say nothing" article though - work has stopped for the last bit but developers/contractors say it's about to start up again soon. while I don't want the 8-storey monstrosity going in there, I sure as hell don't want a brown hole instead.

lol no the eye sore tragic little dump of a shop does not make Piha "perfect". the beach and the surrounding landscape make Piha perfect. a tastefully done cafe well away from the beach-front would compliment the area. along with bulldozing down the shop.

The world is overpopulated already, ipso ergo facto any development that is additional i.e. does not come with a parallel reduction elsewhere, is harmful.

and what about that tacky commercial development on the shorefront down at Piha south then eh?

I've thought for some time that a good quality cafe on that road leading to it under the pohutukawas could be a solid asset for the area

That other development was bad too.

They aren't making any more untouched land.

that's why I'd like to give it the quality touch

Well we may get some first hand experience. A developer is proposing a 40 unit apartment complex right across the road from us.

Funnily enough one of the people complaining got knocked back 5 years ago on a retirement unit complex.

hey
if you want info on the legislation & amendments try www.qualityplanning.org.nz and www.mfe.govt.nz its all there

A door opens at last for Piha cafe

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10492311

don't hold your breath for that cafe to open


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10497333