APPENDIX 4: COROMANDEL PENINSULA CASE STUDY Introduction Figure 1: Location of Coromandel Peninsula The Coromandel Peninsula is located on the east coast of the North Island east of Auckland and to the north east of Hamilton (see Figure 1). The spine of the Coromandel Peninsula consists of a range of steep-sided mountains rising to almost 900 metres at their highest point. These fall steeply to the sea on the west and provide a backdrop to broad valleys, flatlands, estuaries and sandy beaches on the east. The Peninsula has 395 kilometres of coastline. ‘Nowhere else in New Zealand is there a coastline or forest of such diversity, from relatively accessible and developed areas to relatively inaccessible and remote all within such close proximity’ (Boffa Miskell Limited 1997: 4). A 1997 landscape assessment study identified the entire coastal cent (see Figure 2). This is in stark contrast to a 14 environment, excluding settlement areas and per cent growth rate for the previous five year some inland areas, as constituting outstanding census period from 1991 to 1996. The population is features or landscapes under section 6(b)) of the predicted to increase from 25,800 in 1991 to about RMA (Boffa Miskell Limited 1997: 73). The 31,000 in 2021 based on Statistics New Zealand Coromandel Peninsula falls within the medium growth projections, an increase of 20 per jurisdictions of the Thames-Coromandel District cent and just over the predicted percentage growth Council and the Waikato Regional Council. for the country as a whole of 16 per cent. Pressures on landscapes Many residents of the Thames-Coromandel The main pressure on landscapes in the District have low incomes, with the district having Coromandel Peninsula is the increasing number a median annual personal income of $14,700, of visitors and holiday makers, resulting in the compared to the national average of $18,500. This construction of holiday homes and associated low income may be related to the disproportionate infrastructure. number of older people in the district. The district has 20.5 per cent of its population aged 65 years The Thames-Coromandel District has experienced and over, compared to the national average of 12.1 only a modest growth in the number of residents per cent, reflecting the attractiveness of the (1.4 per cent between 1996 and 2001), less than Peninsula to retirees. half of the national percentage increase of 3.3 per Being located within a ninety- Figure 2: Percentage population growth 1996-2001 minute drive of the Auckland region and Hamilton City, 9% there has been strong 8% pressure for holiday homes. 7% On the 2001 census night, 44.5 per cent of dwellings 6% were unoccupied, the highest 5% rate of all districts, compared 4% to a national average of 9.7 3% per cent. This indicates the large proportion of holiday 2% homes within the district. The 1% growth in the populations of 0% Auckland and Hamilton, New Zealand Auckland Hamilton Thames- where the owners of many Region City Coromandel holiday homes reside, is District EDS Landscape Report 67 therefore likely to be a greater predictor of identified and categorized the different kinds of pressure on the Coromandel Ranges than landscapes within the district but did not go so far population increase within the area itself. as to ascribe a value to them. Cultural or heritage landscapes were not identified and there was no The major geographical concentration of public input into the assessment. The study unoccupied dwellings is in the Te Rerenga, identified the entire coastal environment, Whangamata and Pauanui Beach census area excluding settlement areas and some inland units (see Figure 3). Whangamata and Pauanui areas, as constituting outstanding features or Beach are both well-established formal beach landscapes under section 6(b)) of the RMA (Boffa settlements. Te Rerenga includes smaller coastal Miskell Limited 1997: 73). Descriptions of the villages and a large rural area. It has the largest different landscape units drawn from the study number of dwellings of all the census area units were included in the proposed district plan and the (4,257) and the second largest proportion of plan states that ‘The District’s landscape contains unoccupied dwellings (58.6 per cent) after Pauanui substantial areas of significant landscape Beach (80.5 per cent). This indicates that many including a coastal environment which is of holiday homes are located outside the larger national significance and has been determined to formal beach settlements. be of outstanding value’ (Issue 212.2). However, Prices for coastal property on the Peninsula have the locations of outstanding landscapes are not been sharply increasing, with beachfront identified on the planning maps or elsewhere in properties with baches or modest homes selling the plan. for over a million dollars (Bayleys Research 2002), indicating continuing strong demand. Coastal Development of district plan provisions holiday homes can have a significant negative Planning controls over subdivision and effect on landscape values if not well designed and development in the rural and coastal areas have sited (see Figure 4). changed significantly over the twelve years since Tourism is another major pressure on the the RMA came into force. The transitional district landscape. In summertime, the population of the plan prepared under the Town and Country district can increase from 25,000 to 200,000 Planning Act 1977 became operative in 1990, just (Thames-Coromandel District Council 2002). The before the new planning regime under the RMA population of the Tairua-Pauanui area increases came into play. This plan identified a coastal zone more than ten times during this period and the which generally extended from mean high water Whangamata and Whitianga-Cooks Beach areas springs up to the coastal ridgeline, excluding experience an eight-fold population increase settlement areas. Minimum lot sizes of 20 (Waikato Regional Policy Statement 2000, para hectares for agriculture and 6 hectares for 3.5.3). This has major implications for the capacity horticulture were provided for in the rural and of the infrastructure that needs to be provided for coastal zones, in order to maintain the productive these beach settlements, the level of rates use of the land. In addition, the coastal zone required to fund it, and how the burden of such restricted non-farming activities and incorporated rates fall. design controls on buildings. Bush conservation lots were provided for, with a minimum of 10 Identification of important landscapes hectares of bush to be covenanted for each lot. There were no specific landscape protection A visual assessment of the landscapes of the provisions. Peninsula was carried out in 1997. The study Figure 3: Number of occupied and unoccupied dwellings on census night 2001 4500 4000 Unoccupied dwellings 3500 Occupied dwellings 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 Whitianga Coromandel Te Rerenga Whangamata Tairua Moanataiari Parawai Pauanui Hikuai Te Puru- Beach Thornton Bay 68 EDS Landscape Report Figure 4: Residential development on a headland at Tairua Source: Brown 2003 In 1992, a council dominated by ‘progressive lots could only be created if at least 20 hectares of green’ councillors was elected. The council land was subject to legal protection. A 4,000 attempted to put in place a strong environmental square metre minimum lot size was imposed on management framework for the Peninsula, within the conservation lots, but they were not required to the broader neo-liberal framework of reducing be contiguous with the covenanted areas. council spending. In 1995, council planners began There was no identification of outstanding work on preparing a proposed district plan under landscapes or specific rules for their protection. the RMA. A similarly orientated council was elected for another term in 1995 and the proposed These provisions generated much controversy. plan was notified in March 1997. Around 1,200 submissions and 18,000 submission points were lodged in respect of the proposed The plan as notified was significantly more plan. The Coromandel Resource Users Association restrictive on rural and coastal development than (CRUA) was formed in 1997, representing land the transitional plan. The minimum lot size for owners and resource users, to oppose the subdivision in the rural and coastal zones as a proposed plan and the re-election of councillors. discretionary activity was increased from 6 or 20 The CRUA developed an alternative district plan, hectares to 60 hectares. One building per lot was less than a tenth the size of the proposed plan, provided for in the rural zone as a permitted which it presented to the council (The Independent activity, and within the coastal zone as a controlled 1998). In 1998, the council began restructuring its activity. Assessment criteria included the design of planning department, resulting in the loss of three the building and the location and detailed planning senior policy planners. of landscaped areas. Production forestry was a controlled activity in the coastal zone and Hearings of submissions to the plan were held industrial and mining activities were prohibited between September 1997 and June 1998. The activities. council released its decisions on submissions on the proposed plan in October 1998, just before the A rural conservation lot could be created as a elections. They had the effect of reducing the discretionary activity if 5 hectares of existing bush minimum lot size in rural and coastal areas from were covenanted, or 5 hectares of land planted in 60 hectares to a 20 hectare average, as a indigenous vegetation and managed according to discretionary activity. The rural conservation lots an approved plan on the parent title. A maximum were retained but the minimum lot size was of two such lots per title was provided for, but two removed. Production forestry in the coastal zone EDS Landscape Report 69 remained a controlled activity.