Wetlands and the Auckland Region

In recent weeks there has been quite a lot of commentary about the importance of natural wetlands particularly in the rural areas and the need for protection by way of fencing and enhancement planting of appropriate native wetland plants.

Late last year Environment Court Judge Jeff Smith highlighted the importance of encouraging farmers in the Auckland Region to invest in the protection of these natural assets by taking advantage of the rules in the Auckland Unitary Plan that allow land owners to apply to the Council for a subdivision of their land  to create a rural lot of no less than 1 hectare, provided that they protect and conserve a minimum of 5000m² of qualifying natural wetlands.

The Judge went so far to note that “the Region is particularly depauperate for wetland and other significant ecological areas. Coastal forest has almost been completely removed, with very few pockets left”

The judge also noted the Auckland Council’s restrictive approach to these types of subdivisions, based on the view that additional rural lots will lead to a proliferation of subdivision in the rural area.

Fortunately, the Court concluded (and I quote from the appeal decision) “We have concluded that the Council’s view is being controlled more by staff internal policy than by Plan provisions. It is a policy decision to suppress the creation of transferable or in-situ development, rather than application of any wording of the plan.”

In light of these conclusions, the Council should now be guided more by the Court’s view that qualifying natural wetlands (and other biodiversity features like native bush) are extremely important, and property owners should be incentivised to invest in protection and regeneration of these features to enable long term protection through subdivision provisions.

However, another restrictive impediment to the protection of these remaining areas of natural wetland and bush areas is the Natural Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land (NPS-HPL) which limits the development of land areas that have a land use classification (LUC) of 1,2 and 3; and that is a significant area of Franklin. It is important of course to protect highly productive lands, and these generally are the volcanic soils which are classed as LUC 1 and 2. More recently, the National Government has committed to removing LUC 3 soils from the NPS-HPL and this will allow property owners more flexibility in the use of their land and as a bonus allow the more natural wetlands to be protected which will be win/win for all.