COP Outcome development and evaluation

Wellington City Council was going to have to meet lots of conditions and specifications. The formal resource consent process calls for submissions on the project. A panel of five Commissioners presided over a joint hearing of the Wellington Regional and Wellington City Councils to hear the application for resource consents in late January 2002. The hearing lasted two days. Six parties lodged submissions in opposition, which for 800metres of coastline in terms of the scale of a $7 million project was considered very small. The concerns were not at all negative and were met in the course of the hearing. Some examples of the issues/concerns raised were traffic/parking implications (especially residents parking); amenity facilities' opening hours and location; litter generated by additional people; and the technical feasibility of the project.

The Commissioners' decision to grant the resource consent (subject to conditions) was supported by the Minister of Conservation granting approval for the project's Restricted Coastal Activities in March 2002. There were no appeals which is a most unusual occurrence viewed by many as probably a “a one-off" situation.

A Resource Consent issue/concern

One submission related to reclamation, which was extremely small in terms of the whole harbour – more perhaps a matter of principle. The submission didn't want it to be a large reclamation; it wasn't, although technically speaking the sand being put on the beach is also reclamation.