Key issues report for New Zealand Transport Agency, East West Link Prepared under section 149G of the Resource Management Act 1991 Date: 14 February 2017 Report by: Auckland Council (Local Authority) Prepared for: Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) East West Link key issues report for Environmental Protection Authority, February 2017, Auckland Council 2 Contents Glossary ................................................................................................................................................. 4 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 5 Purpose and scope ....................................................................................................................... 5 Separation of roles ........................................................................................................................ 5 Proposal overview ......................................................................................................................... 5 Local context ................................................................................................................................. 6 Physical environment .................................................................................................................... 6 Existing authorisations .................................................................................................................. 7 Existing authorisations associated with the proposal ................................................................... 8 Relevant policy instruments identified ............................................................................................... 9 National planning instruments .................................................................................................... 10 Regional and district planning instruments ................................................................................. 10 Relevance of appeals against Unitary Plan ................................................................................ 11 Comment .................................................................................................................................... 12 Approach to key issues ...................................................................................................................... 13 Coastal ........................................................................................................................................ 13 Water quality – freshwater and coastal ....................................................................................... 16 Infrastructure ............................................................................................................................... 18 All infrastructure .......................................................................................................................... 18 Transport infrastructure............................................................................................................... 20 Other infrastructure, including electricity transmission ............................................................... 20 Relationship of Māori with project area ....................................................................................... 21 Impacts of the proposal on Māori ............................................................................................... 22 Opportunities ............................................................................................................................... 25 Decision making by the applicant ............................................................................................... 25 Decision making by the Board exercising functions under the RMA .......................................... 26 Other key issues ......................................................................................................................... 27 Landscape and Visual Effects .................................................................................................... 27 Ecological Effects ........................................................................................................................ 28 Heritage effects ........................................................................................................................... 31 Tensions between key issues ..................................................................................................... 32 Additional planning considerations ............................................................................................. 33 Notices of requirement and designations ................................................................................... 33 Resource consents required ....................................................................................................... 34 3 Activity status .............................................................................................................................. 35 Summary .............................................................................................................................................. 36 Appendices Appendix 1: Designations within the project area Appendix 2: Overlays within the project area Appendix 3: Regional resource consents within the project area Appendix 4: Omitted or irrelevant planning provisions Appendix 5: Spatially mapped appeals within the project area Appendices are produced in a separate volume. 4 Glossary AEE Assessment of environmental effects ARPS Auckland Regional Policy Statement 1999 ARP:C Auckland Regional Plan: Coastal 2004 AUP OiP, or Unitary Plan Auckland Unitary Plan, Operative in Part 2016 CMA Coastal marine area NoR[x] Notice of Requirement[number] NPS National policy statement NPSET National Policy Statement on Electricity Transmission 2008 NPSFM National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2014 NZCPS New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement 2010 ONF Outstanding natural feature recognised in a regional coastal or district plan overlay. Overlay Overlays are a technique used in the AUP OiP. Overlays manage the protection, maintenance or enhancement of particular values associated with an area or resource. The values are identified, mapped and scheduled based on values described in AUP policies. RMA or Act Resource Management Act 1991 RPS Regional policy statement TP10 Technical Publication 10 – Stormwater management devices design guideline manual 2003, Auckland Regional Council Transpower Transpower New Zealand Limited. This is the requiring authority responsible for the national grid 5 Introduction Purpose and scope 1. The East West Link Proposal (the proposal) is within the Auckland region. The EPA commissioned Auckland Council, the relevant local authority, to provide a key issues report in accordance with section 149G(3) of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA). This report has been prepared by Tim Hegarty, Senior Planner; and Rebecca Greaves, Principal Planner, as council officers employed by the Council. 2. Section 149G(3) requires the key issues report to include the following matters relating to the proposal: a. Any relevant provisions of a national policy statement, a New Zealand coastal policy statement, a regional policy statement or proposed regional policy statement, and a plan or proposed plan; and b. A statement on whether all required resource consents in relation to the proposal to which the matter relates have been applied for; and c. The activity status of all proposed activities in relation to the matter. 3. A key issues report does not provide an evaluation of the proposal’s merits. It is not a hearing report prepared under s42A RMA. A key issues report is narrower than the broad statutory assessment required under sections 104 and 171 RMA. We are not able to consider such tests. We do not provide recommendations for substantive decision-making on the proposal. Separation of roles 4. Auckland Council is required to report on the key issues in relation to the proposal. This report satisfies Council’s statutory obligation. This report is not the view or adopted policy of the Council. 5. To avoid doubt, the Council (including council controlled organisations) may choose to make a submission on the proposal, which may advocate for a particular decision. 6. The authors of this report will not participate in any Council submission on the proposal. Proposal overview 7. The proposal to construct, operate and maintain the East West Link is extensively detailed in the application documents. New Zealand Transport Agency (the applicant) lodged multiple resource consent applications and two notices of requirement: 6 a. NoR1 is for a four lane arterial road between State Highway 1 (SH 1) at Mt Wellington in the east, and State Highway 20 (SH 20) at Onehunga in the west; b. NoR2 is to alter the existing SH1 designation1 between Mt Wellington and the Princes Street interchange at Ōtāhuhu, principally by providing an additional traffic lane in each direction. 8. Resource consents have been sought for a range of activities: a. Land use consent (section 9) for bulk earthworks, vegetation alteration and removal, construction parking/accessways, the disturbance of contaminated soil, and the establishment of a stormwater pond (at Miami Stream); b. Coastal occupation and use (section 12) for reclamation, declamation, vegetation removal,