Version Number Date Environmental Planning Publication ISSN: DRAFT Bay of Plenty Regional Coastal Environment Plan Bay of Plenty Regional Council PO Box 364 Whakatāne 3158 Contents Part One: Purpose, content, planning framework 1 1 Introduction 1 2 Purpose 1 3 Plan coverage 1 3.1 Geographic coverage 1 3.2 The coastal environment 2 4 Plan structure 2 4.1 Overview 2 4.2 Rules 3 5 Plan mechanisms 3 5.1 Introduction 3 5.2 Zoning and Overlays 3 6 Roles and responsibilities of other agencies 4 6.1 District and city councils 4 6.2 Maritime New Zealand 4 6.3 Ministry of Primary Industries 4 6.4 Department of Conservation 5 6.5 Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) 5 6.6 Ministry for the Environment 5 6.7 Office of Treaty Settlements 5 7 Other policy documents 6 7.1 New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement 2010 6 DRAFT Bay of Plenty Regional Coastal Environment Plan i 7.2 Bay of Plenty Regional Policy Statement 2013 6 Part Two: Issues and objectives for the coastal environment 7 1 Issues 9 1.1 Integrated Management 9 1.2 Natural Heritage 9 1.3 Water Quality 9 1.4 Māori Values and Knowledge 10 1.5 Historic Heritage 11 1.6 Coastal Hazards and Climate Change 11 1.7 Recreation 11 1.8 Activities in the coastal marine area 11 1.9 Aquaculture issues 12 1.10 Harbour Development Zone 12 1.11 Port Zone 13 2 Objectives 13 2.1 Integrated management 13 2.2 Natural Heritage 13 2.3 Water Quality 14 2.4 Iwi Resource Management 14 2.5 Historic Heritage 15 2.6 Coastal Hazards 15 2.7 Recreation 15 2.8 Activities in the Coastal Marine Area 15 Part Three: Integrated management of the coastal environment 19 1 Natural heritage (NH) 21 ii DRAFT Bay of Plenty Regional Coastal Environment Plan 2 Water quality (WQ) 24 3 Iwi Resource Management (IW) 25 4 Historic Heritage (HH) 27 5 Coastal Hazards (CH) 27 6 Recreation, public access and open space (RA) 32 Part Four: Activity-based policies and rules 35 1 Structures and occupation of space (SO) 37 1.1 Policies 37 1.2 Rules 39 2 Disturbance, deposition and extraction (DD) 48 2.1 Policies 48 2.2 Rules 52 2.3 Rules for mangrove management 57 2.4 Wetland enhancement rule 61 2.5 Vehicle access rules 63 3 Coastal discharges (CD) 64 3.1 Policies 64 3.2 Rules 69 3.3 Stormwater rules 73 4 Reclamation (RM) 75 4.1 Policies 75 4.2 Rules 76 DRAFT Bay of Plenty Regional Coastal Environment Plan iii 5 Taking, using, damming or diversion of coastal water (TD) 78 5.1 Policies 78 5.2 Rules 78 6 Aquaculture (AQ) 80 6.1 Policies 80 6.2 Aquaculture rules 84 7 Biosecurity (BS) 88 7.1 Policies 88 7.2 Rules 89 8 Harbour Development Zone (HD) 91 8.1 Policies 91 8.2 Rules 93 9 Port Zone (PZ) 99 9.1 Policies 99 9.2 Rules 100 10 Noise (NS) 107 10.1 Policies 107 10.2 Rules 108 11 Geothermal Resources (GR) 110 11.1 Policies 110 11.2 Rules 110 12 SUMMARY OF RULES 113 Part Five: Methods 121 iv DRAFT Bay of Plenty Regional Coastal Environment Plan Definitions 127 Part Six: Schedules to the Regional Coastal Environment Plan 135 Schedule 1 – River Mouths 137 Schedule 2 – Significant Natural Areas 141 Schedule 3 – Outstanding Natural Features and Landscapes 169 Schedule 4 – Management guidelines for natural features and landscapes 175 Schedule 5 – Regionally significant surf breaks 187 Schedule 6 – Areas of Significant Cultural Value 189 Schedule 7 – Historic heritage inventory 197 Schedule 8 – Harbour Development Zones 199 Schedule 9 – Outline Development Plan for the Port of Tauranga 2013 201 Schedule 10 – Water quality classification 213 Schedule 11 – Financial contributions 215 Schedule 12 – High risk facilities 221 DRAFT Bay of Plenty Regional Coastal Environment Plan v Part One Purpose, content, planning framework 1 Introduction This regional plan may be cited as the Bay of Plenty Regional Coastal Environment Plan (RCEP). It has been prepared by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council. This Plan incorporates the Regional Coastal Plan required by s64 of the Resource Management Act 1991 (the Act). Section 3.1 defines the geographic coverage of this Plan. The Regional Coastal Environment Plan consists of two volumes. Volume 1 (this volume) contains a number of chapters divided into six parts. Volume 2 contains the planning maps for the Bay of Plenty Regional Coastal Environment Plan. 2 Purpose The purpose of this Plan is to enable Bay of Plenty Regional Council to promote the sustainable management of the natural and physical resources of the Bay of Plenty coastal environment. The specific objectives of the Plan are set out in Part 2. Nothing in this Plan removes the need for all people to fully comply with the provisions of all other statutes, regulations, plans, bylaws and any other legal requirements that are relevant to activities being undertaken or proposed to be undertaken in the coastal marine area. 3 Plan coverage 3.1 Geographic coverage The Plan includes the entire coastal environment. The coastal environment includes the coastal marine area and land which is dominated by the coast, such as sand dunes and coastal wetlands. The landward extent of the coastal environment has been identified and mapped in the Regional Policy Statement and is shown in the maps that accompany this Plan. The coastal marine area is defined in section 2 of the Act. The coastal marine area starts at the mean high water mark and extends 12 nautical miles (approximately 22 kilometres) offshore. The first map in Volume 2 shows the coastal marine area for the Bay of Plenty region. Schedule 1 – River Mouths and the planning maps detail the landward extent of the coastal marine area within the rivers of the Bay of Plenty. DRAFT Bay of Plenty Regional Coastal Environment Plan 1 Discharges of contaminants to air in the coastal marine area are addressed in the Bay of Plenty Regional Air Plan. 3.2 The coastal environment Regional councils are required by the Act to prepare a regional plan for the coastal marine area – the ‘wet’ part of the coastal environment. However, important values and issues for the coastal marine area such as natural heritage, water quality, cultural values, public access and natural coastal hazards cannot be effectively managed in isolation from the land component of the coastal environment. Accordingly this Plan deals with resource management issues that cross the land/water divide and includes objectives, policies and methods that apply to both the sea and land areas of the coast. The Act allows for such an approach by empowering regional councils to develop objectives, policies and methods to achieve the integrated management of natural or physical resources. The Bay of Plenty Regional Council cannot make rules that apply on land to provide for public access or historic, cultural and natural heritage. These matters are regulated by district plans. Therefore, this Plan uses rules only in the coastal marine area, being restricted to other methods (such as advocacy) with regard to the landward part. Bay of Plenty Regional Council can make rules on land controlling the discharge of contaminants and soil conservation. The discharge of contaminants and soil conservation are regulated by other regional plans. 4 Plan structure 4.1 Overview Part One provides a background to the Plan and sets out its framework. It specifies the purpose of the Plan and outlines the spatial and topic coverage. Part Two identifies the resource management issues for the coastal environment that are addressed in this Plan, and the objectives that the plan seeks to achieve. Parts Three provides policy direction on those matters that cross the land/water divide and where an integrated approach to management is critical to achieving the objectives of the Plan. Part Four encompasses all of the restrictions on the use of the coastal marine area specified in sections 12, 14 and 15 of the Act. It places these in a user-friendly format, listing them under activities which applicants should find easy to recognise. Part Five contains the non-statutory methods which will be used to implement the policies of the Plan. Part Six contains the Schedules to Volume 1. Volume Two of this Plan contains all the planning maps. Two documents accompany the Plan, but are not a formal (statutory) part of the Plan: Coastal State of the Environment report 2013 Monitoring, Reporting and Review Plan 2013 2 DRAFT Bay of Plenty Regional Coastal Environment Plan 4.2 Rules Part 4 of the Plan contains rules for activities that occur in the coastal marine area, which fall under the control of the regional council. Permitted activities can be undertaken without a resource consent provided that the activity complies with the standards, terms and conditions specified in the Plan. A Controlled Activity requires a resource consent, but an application cannot be declined by the consent authority. The activity must comply with any requirements, conditions, and permissions set out in the rule. The consent authority can only impose additional conditions if they fall within the matters listed in the rule. A Restricted Discretionary Activity requires a resource consent, and can be declined. The consent authority can only consider the matters listed in the rule when deciding whether to grant the consent and what conditions should be imposed. A Discretionary Activity requires a resource consent, and can be declined. The consent authority is able to consider any relevant resource management considerations when deciding whether to grant the consent and what conditions should be imposed.