Chapter 37 – Designations
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QUEENSTOWN LAKES DISTRICT COUNCIL Hearing of Submissions on Proposed District Plan Report 10 Report, Recommendations and Decisions of Independent Commissioner Regarding Chapter 37 – Designations Commissioner Paul Rogers (Chair) 0 CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTORY MATTERS 3 1. PRELIMINARY MATTERS 3 2. STATUTORY CONSIDERATIONS 5 3. STATUTORY FRAMEWORK FOR ALL DESIGNATIONS 7 PART 1: REQUIRING AUTHORITY DESIGNATIONS 16 4. REQUIRING AUTHORITY DESIGNATIONS 16 5. ROLL OVER OF DESIGNATIONS 17 6. REMOVAL OF DESIGNATIONS 18 7. DESIGNATIONS (MINOR ALTERATIONS) 19 8. DESIGNATIONS (WITH AMENDMENTS) 19 9. AURORA ENERGY LIMITED (AURORA) 19 10. CHORUS NEW ZEALAND LIMITED AND SPARK NEW ZEALAND TRADING LIMITED 23 11. METEOROLOGICAL SERVICE OF NEW ZEALAND 23 12. MINISTRY OF EDUCATION 24 13. NEW ZEALAND POLICE 25 14. NZ TRANSPORT AGENCY 26 15. QLDC SUBMISSION 26 16. NZTA SUBMISSIONS 27 17. TRANSPOWER 30 18. NEW NOTICES OF REQUIREMENT 30 19. MoE 34 20. NEW ZEALAND POLICE 34 21. CONCLUSION 35 PART 2: QLDC REQUIREMENTS/DESIGNATIONS 36 22. QLDC REQUIREMENTS/DESIGNATIONS 36 23. ROLLED OVER DESIGNATIONS 36 24. LAPSED OR REMOVED DESIGNATIONS 37 25. DESIGNATIONS WITH MINOR AMENDMENTS 39 26. DESIGNATIONS WITH MODIFICATION 41 27. NEW DESIGNATIONS 61 28. CLOSED LANDFILLS 70 29. QLDC ROADS 73 30. CONCLUSION 73 PART 3: AIRPORT DESIGNATIONS 74 31. AIRPORT DESIGNATIONS 74 32. WANAKA AIRPORT – DESIGNATION #64 75 33. GENERAL SUBMISSIONS 75 34. PRELIMINARY MATTERS 76 35. EFFECTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT – SECTION 168A(3) 83 36. OTHER MATTERS AND SUBMISSIONS 89 37. OTHER SUBMISSIONS ON DESIGNATION #64 91 38. OVERALL JUDGEMENT 97 39. FINAL DECISION FOR DESIGNATION #64 100 40. WANAKA AIRPORT - DESIGNATION #65 (AIRPORT APPROACH AND LAND USE CONTROLS) 101 41. QUEENSTOWN AIRPORT – DESIGNATION #2 102 42. GENERAL SUBMISSIONS 102 43. PRELIMINARY MATTERS 102 44. DESIGNATION #2 (AERODROME) - QUEENSTOWN AIRPORT- THE PROJECT 106 45. EFFECTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT – SECTION 171(1) 113 46. EFFECTS ASSESSMENT 115 47. OTHER MATTERS AND SUBMISSIONS 128 1 48. OVERALL JUDGEMENT ON DESIGNATION #2 135 49. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS 135 50. OVERALL CONCLUSION ON DESIGNATION #2 140 51. QUEENSTOWN AIRPORT - DESIGNATION #4 (AIRPORT APPROACH AND LAND USE CONTROLS) 141 52. CONCLUSION ON DESIGNATION 4 145 2 PART A: INTRODUCTORY MATTERS 1. PRELIMINARY MATTERS 1.1. Terminology in this Report 1. Throughout this report, I use the following abbreviations: CFR Computer Freehold Register Council Queenstown Lakes District Council NoR Notice of Requirement NPSET 2008 National Policy Statement for Electricity Transmission 2008 NPSFM 2011 National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2011 NPSFM 2014 National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2014 NPSREG 2011 National Policy Statement for Renewable Electricity Generation 2011 NZTA New Zealand Transport Authority ODP the Operative District Plan for the Queenstown Lakes District as at the date of this report ONF Outstanding Natural Feature(s) ONL Outstanding Natural Landscape(s) PDP Stage 1 of the Proposed District Plan for Queenstown Lakes District as publicly notified on 26 August 2015 Proposed RPS the Proposed Regional Policy Statement for the Otago Region Decisions Version dated 1 October 2016, unless otherwise stated QAC Queenstown Airport Corporation QAZ Queenstown Airport RMA Resource Management Act 1991 RPS the Operative Regional Policy Statement for the Otago Region dated October 1998 UCES Upper Clutha Environmental Society UGB Urban Growth Boundary WAZ Wanaka Airport 3 WRA Wyuna Preserve Residents Association 1.2. Topics Considered 2. The subject matter of the Stream 7 hearings was Chapter 37 of the PDP. Ms Rebecca Holden prepared and presented the Section 42A Reports for this hearing. Chapter 37 includes a Schedule of Designations that sets out the designation number, map reference, requiring authority responsible, purpose, legal description and conditions that apply to the designation. The second part of Chapter 37 includes the conditions referred to in the schedule of designations. 3. Mr Barr completed the Section 42A Report relating to NZTA and its late submission. I will refer to the author by name when referencing their recommendations and opinions. 1.3. Hearing Arrangements 4. Hearing of Chapter 37 was held on Monday 17 October, Thursday 20 October and Friday 21 October 2016 in Queenstown. 5. The parties heard from on Chapter 37 were: Queenstown - Lakes District Council (as regulator) James Winchester (Counsel) Rebecca Holden as Section 42A Reporting Officer (3 Section 42A reports) for all Designations Queenstown - Lakes District Council (as requiring authority) Alice Balme (Counsel) John Kyle (Witness) Erin Moogan (Witness – infrastructure) Jeannie Galavazi (Witness for QLDC as Requiring Authority – Reserves) Queenstown Airport Corporation Limited1 Rebecca Wolt (Counsel for QAC as Requiring Authority) John Kyle (Witness for QAC as Requiring Authority) David Jerram2 Sarah Burdon3 Kirsty Sharpe4 Island Capital Limited Rosie Hill for5 Skydive Queenstown Limited Jayne Macdonald for6 1 Submission 433 2 Submission 79 3 Submission 282 4 Submission 553 5 Submission 769 6 Submission 23 4 Remarkables Parks Limited John Young for7 1.4. Procedural Steps and Issues 6. A minute was issued by the Independent Commissioner Panel on 28 September 2016 setting out procedural matters, namely that first evidence must be lodged with the Council by 12pm Friday 7th October 2016. Requiring authorities would then have the opportunity to provide a written reply which must be filed not later than 5 working days following the date the Hearing is adjourned. 7. A second minute was issued by the Commissioners on 11 October 2016 inviting late submissions by NZTA to address the errors/omissions detailed within the Section 42A Report relating to NZTA and the legal submissions of Ms McIndoe and Mr Winchester. 8. Pursuant to this minute, NZTA applied for, and was subsequently granted an extension of time under section 37 RMA to file a late submission on 14 October 2016. In accordance with clause 7, Schedule 1 of the RMA, the Council then gave public notice of NZTA’s submission and served the NZTA submission on all persons who made a submission on the PDP and any person who the Council considered may be directly affected by NZTA’s submission. Submissions were open until 16 December 2017 and no further submissions were received. 9. A further Commissioner minute was issued on 16 November 2016 relating to leave sought by Mr Young on behalf of Remarkables Park Limited to file submissions in relation to QAC’s allegation of trade competition. I accepted these submissions and have considered all the evidence presented to me. I will discuss the issue of trade competition later in my report. 1.5. Consistency and Relevance of other recommended decisions in the PDP 10. It is important before I begin to discuss the plan review as a whole. Stage 1 of the review was notified in August 2015, which contained most of the key chapters, including residential, rural and commercial zones. Submissions relating to these chapters have been considered in a series of 13 hearings. 11. All chapters in Stage 1 were notified at the same time, which means Section 32 Assessments and relevant reports were all available at the same time for interested submitters to read. I consider that where there was commonality of location, participants or issues across these chapters that the participants would have had the opportunity to review Council reports, submissions and evidence on the matters of interest. 12. I acknowledge that through the hearing process, there have been some changes made to the underlying zones where these designations are located. This is particularly relevant to the airport designations, which I will refer to in Part 3 of this decision. However in reaching my decision I consider it appropriate to have regard to other relevant recommended decisions on other relevant PDP chapters. 2. STATUTORY CONSIDERATIONS 13. Due to their unique nature, it is important to set out some context and background to designations and the process involved. The statutory framework is discussed in this section to aid the reader through my decision-making process. 7 Submission 1097 5 2.1. QLDC in the Designation Process 14. The plan review process triggers a number of processes under the RMA specific to designations. Some take place prior to notification of the Proposed Plan. QLDC has dual roles and functions due to it being a territorial authority responsible under the RMA for both the District Plan and its review and because it is also a requiring authority responsible for its own designations within the District Plan and the review process. 15. As territorial authority, QLDC has a recommendatory role in relation to NoR’s of other requiring authorities notified as part of the PDP. Second, as requiring authority, QLDC has decision making powers in respect of its own designations. 16. Both roles have been delegated to me as decision maker. So I will make decisions on the QLDC designations8 and make recommendations9 to all other requiring authorities on their designations. Requiring authorities can respond to my recommendations relating to their designations and I provide details later. 2.2. Designations 17. A ‘designation’ is a provision in a District Plan that authorises a requiring authority’s work and activities over a particular site or area without the need to obtain a land use consent or comply with zone rules. A designation also prevents a third party from carrying out activities over or on that particular site or area that may be incompatible with the designated purpose.10 2.3. Requiring Authority 18. Section 166 of the RMA defines a "requiring authority" as: a. A Minister of the Crown; b. A local authority; or c. An approved network utility operator11. 19. Ministers of the Crown and local authorities are, by right, requiring authorities for projects and works for which they have financial responsibility. 20. The scope of the requiring authority status approved by the Minster under section 167 is set out in the Gazette Notice.