DCC
SUPPORTS MEGA-WAREHOUSES IN CAREYS BAY AND BACK BEACH !!
Residents
of Careys Bay and Back Beach, Port Chalmers are shocked by
announcement
of a last minute attempt to make changes to the Dunedin
District
Plan. These would enable huge warehouses to be
built
blocking the sun, interfering with views, and bringing a sense of
being
hemmed in by industrial facilities to quiet bays with otherwise high
residential
and recreational qualities.
Just
what do these changes mean? When new reclamations were allowed in
Careys
Bay and Back Beach, it was on condition that the height of stacked
goods
and buildings was limited, to protect the bays from the most adverse
visual
impact of the reclamations. The imposed limits have since been
modified
a little, but as they stand in the proposed district plan they are
8.5
metres in Careys Bay and 10 metres at Back Beach.
Port
Otago Limited is seeking to allow structures to 15 metres, sufficient
to
permit huge warehouses and five-high stacks of empty containers. What is
a
huge warehouse? Think of the Edgar Centre. Something 100 to 150 metres
long
(longer than a rugby field) with a monolithic wall 10 to 15 metres
high,
unrelieved by windows or doors. For a tranquil harbour-side bay this
represents
total annihilation of the skyline. A five-high stack of empty
containers
has a similar effect.
Click
here to see the existing visual pollution and the proposed (increased)
variety!
The present
height restrictions were imposed after lengthy hearings in the
Planning
Tribunal in 1993 during which the issues where examined in minute
detail.
According to Mr C J Hilder, who represents the Careys Bay
Association
in the Environment Court: "the height restrictions were in
effect
'contracted into' by Port Otago Limited who always had the choice to
accept
the conditions and build the reclamations or to reject the
conditions
and not build the reclamations."
The
conditions of consent have rightly been written into the Proposed
District
Plan and the Dunedin City Council has to date declined to support
Port
Otago Limited's application to raise the current height restrictions.
The
public have understood that they could continue to rely on the DCC to
continue
to defend its position, however at the last minute the council has
changed
its view and has advised that the current restrictions are no
longer
necessary and that an increase in maximum height to 15 metres by
Port
Otago Limited is not only acceptable, but will also have no adverse
impact
on the amenity value of either Back Beach or Careys Bay.
Click
here to read the reasons why Port Otago Ltd. wish to have the height restrictions
lifted!
Mr Hilder
says that this last minute change in position has left those
involved
in the case with very little time to properly prepare or fundraise
for
the Environment Court hearing which will take place between the 17th
and
21st September. "This use of timing appears to be a deliberate attempt
to
deprive community representatives of a fair hearing."
Janeen
Pringle, acting spokesperson for the Careys Bay Association, says
that
members of the Careys Bay community are angry that the Dunedin City
Council
will impose building restrictions on residential developments to
protect
the rights of neighbours, but allow a corporate developer such as
Port
Otago to 'build out' an entire community. "This situation would
suggest
that Environment Court rulings that impose conditions of consent in
a
planning process, are not worth the paper that they are written on. "
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