Karaka Harbourside Estate Limited (Submitter 3644; Fs 2965)
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Before the Auckland Unitary Plan Independent Hearings Panel IN THE MATTER OF The Resource Management Act 1991 and the Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Act 2010 AND IN THE MATTER OF Of Topics 016/017 – RUB STATEMENT OF EVIDENCE OF MICHAEL STEPHEN SMITH ON BEHALF OF KARAKA HARBOURSIDE ESTATE LIMITED (SUBMITTER 3644; FS 2965) RE KARAKA DATED 16 November 2015 S:\Jobs\1828 - KHEL RUB\151115 karaka RUB evidence v2-mss.docx - 2 - Introduction 1. My name is Michael Stephen Smith. 2. I am a co-owner, director and senior land development engineer at CivilPlan Consultants Limited, and have held that role since the company’s inception in September 2014. Prior, I spent 33 years as a senior land development engineer with Harrison Grierson Consultants. I was a Principal in that organisation and engineering manager in its South Auckland office. 3. This statement of evidence is given in support of Karaka Harbourside Estate Limited (3644 and FS 2965) (“ KHEL ”) in support of its submissions in relation to the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan (“ PAUP ”) Topics 016/107 – RUB . In particular, this evidence relates to a request for the extension of the RUB to include land at Karaka. 4. My formal qualification is New Zealand Certificate of Engineering (Civil). I am a full member of the Institute of Profession Engineers New Zealand (MIPENZ) and am a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng). I am also a Project Management Professional (PMP) and a member of the Project Management Institute of New Zealand (PMINZ). I have practised as a land development engineer for nearly 40 years, predominantly in Auckland, on numerous minor and major land development projects (including the 4 stages of the Karaka Harbourside Estate residential subdivision, Karaka Lakes, Pokeno, Wattle Downs, Papakura, Takanini to mention a few) in the following capacities: (a) Providing engineering advice and coordinating the advice of specialist niche sub-consultants during the Plan Variations and re-zoning of Hingaia (to enable Karaka Harbourside Estate to occur) and Pokeno; (b) Pre-development feasibility studies and due diligence reports; (c) Design, consenting and construction management of 100’s of residential; commercial and industrial lots; (d) Negotiation of development agreements in association with the above- mentioned projects. 5. I served for about 10 years on the Manukau City Council’s Development Standards Committee as an invited member representing the consultancy sector in developing and maintaining best practise standards for land development throughout the city. S:\Jobs\1828 - KHEL RUB\151115 karaka RUB evidence v2-mss.docx - 3 - 6. I confirm that I have read the Code of Conduct for Expert Witnesses contained in the Environment Court Practice Note 2014 and that I agree to comply with it. I confirm that I have considered all the material facts that I am aware of that might alter or detract from the opinions that I express, and that this evidence is within my area of expertise. Scope of evidence 7. My evidence will address the following topics: (a) Suitability of the land to be developed from an engineering point of view, (b) Matters of concern (c) Conclusions. Site Overview 8. Karaka is located on the southern side of the Pahurehure Inlet of the Manukau Harbour. The KHEL submission seeks the inclusion within the RUB of an area marked on the plan attached to the submission (“ the Karaka Land ”). 9. The Karaka Land includes but is not limited to areas identified by Auckland Council through its RUB process as “Karaka West” and “Karaka North”. Those areas are shown on the plan attached to the submission. A copy is in Annexure A to this statement of evidence. The Karaka West area encompasses the Urquhart Road Peninsula including Karaka Point, and the Karaka North area encompasses Cape Horn Peninsula. Drury Creek is located to the west of Karaka North and Glassons Creek is located between the Karaka North and Karaka West areas. My evidence considers the whole of the Karaka Land but I do refer to Karaka North and Karaka West as required. 10. The Karaka Land is currently used predominantly for rural land use, and is dominated by pasture although less common horticultural land use (including crops and glasshouses) is also present. 11. The area is predominantly flat to gentle rolling terrain, with numerous relatively short gullies and watercourses that drain into the tidal creeks, Pahurehure Inlet and Manukau Harbour. S:\Jobs\1828 - KHEL RUB\151115 karaka RUB evidence v2-mss.docx - 4 - Background Information 12. In preparing this evidence I reviewed the KHEL PAUP submission pertaining to the proposed RUB extension. 13. I have also read the evidence prepared by David Blow, Chris Allen and Andre Stuart on behalf of Auckland Council relating to Watercare Services Ltd’s (WSL) interests in this area. 14. I have undertaken a desktop study comprising the study of aerial photographs, GIS information, existing utility services and contours. 15. I have undertaken one site visit to enable a broad inspection of the Karaka Land and publically accessible key site features (i.e. no private land was accessed). The site visit did not involve any detailed quantitative field surveys. General Description 16. It is noteworthy how similar in terms of key characteristics the Karaka Land is to Karaka Harbourside and Karaka Lakes urban areas at Hingaia that have been developed over the past decade, and to the land comprised in the current Hingaia SHA’s. 17. The Karaka Land is similar to those areas with respect to geography, topography, geomorphology, coastal proximity, drainage patterns, and aspect as the abovementioned sites. 18. As a specialist land development practitioner, I consider the land throughout the Karaka Land to be ideal for residential development. I can envisage quality, environmentally sensitive subdivisions in this area with development costs lying at the lower end of the prevailing cost per lot spectrum. New Manukau Harbour Bridge 19. I note that the KHEL submission promotes a bridge from the subject area to Weymouth peninsula. 20. This makes sense in many ways. Good engineering design is cognisant of the parameters of resilience and redundancy. Having a second north-south route, particularly in the location proposed, has an irrefutable logic to it. It would provide resilience to the overall roading network while at the same time introducing some spare S:\Jobs\1828 - KHEL RUB\151115 karaka RUB evidence v2-mss.docx - 5 - capacity to the southern motorway (which no doubt would soon be taken up by other growth to the south and east). 21. In my opinion it is clear that such a bridge would have regional benefit from an engineering perspective because of the increased redundancy and capacity, rather than simply being a convenient commuter route for new residents in the subject area. 22. Notwithstanding whether a decision is made at this stage to develop a bridge at Weymouth, I consider that the Karaka Land is a good location to develop for urban purposes given the lack of significant physical or technical constraints on development and its location adjacent to the existing urban area. My observation is that, even without a Weymouth bridge, the Karaka Land is a similar distance from the Auckland CBD and other major employment areas such as Manukau and the Auckland Airport as is the large area of Future Urban zone at Drury, and is almost all significantly closer to those areas than are Paerata and Pukekohe. Water and Waste Water 23. I note that the distance from Dyke Road in Karaka North along Linwood and Hingaia Roads to new waste water infrastructure in Hingaia is approximately 5km. It is a further 2km to Urquhart Road in Karaka West. 24. Recently a 7km waste water line was constructed from Pokeno to Tuakau. Also recently Watercare Services Limited constructed a 27km watermain from Pukekohe to Clarks Beach (paragraph 17.2 of the evidence of David Blow, Chris Allen and Andre Stuart). I do not consider that the subject land is prohibitively remote from water supply and waste water infrastructure. 25. In their joint statement, David Blow, Chris Allen and Andre Stuart state as follows: (a) WSL supports having the RUB as a mechanism within the RPS (where it will not be susceptible to private plan changes). This is reinforced by paragraph 9.6 which argues that the need to service areas out of sequence will pose significant challenges for WSL. (b) WSL’s funding is derived from water and waste water tariffs, infrastructure growth charges and debt (paragraph 11.12). S:\Jobs\1828 - KHEL RUB\151115 karaka RUB evidence v2-mss.docx - 6 - (c) WSL’s recommendation to Council is for a staged rezoning roll-out is adopted as WSL is not able to provide and/or upgrade infrastructure throughout the region at the same time. 26. I disagree that WSL’s cash flow should be a constraint when strategically considering whether or not land such as North and West Karaka should or should not be excluded from the RUB. It seems to me that it is appropriate to expect infrastructure providers to service strategically located development, unless there is some compelling physical or financial reason why that should not occur in any given case. In contrast, it appears that a lack of current funding or planning of infrastructure is being used as justification for the region failing to plan strategically with respect to future land use. 27. What is not recognised in the abovementioned statement is that WSL’s difficulties can be overcome where, by way of example, developers are prepared to self-fund the servicing of their land. In my experience that is commonly occurring, not least because WSL appears increasingly to be expecting developers to enter into such arrangements.