KEY POINTS:
Auckland's environmental watchdog is calling for a developer to do more to protect the green-hills backdrop to Long Bay Regional Park and health of the adjacent marine reserve.
Auckland Regional Council appealed to the Environment Court yesterday to amend a North Shore City Council proposal to allow developer Landco to house a population of 4500 to 5000 people on farmland.
This follows the July hearing of Landco's appeal against the city's plan on grounds it allowed 1000 fewer homes and stopped it doing something "special and different".
Expert witnesses for the ARC supported its call for extra measures to avoid large-scale earthworks and changing streams.
Elsewhere, site works had spelled ruin for streams and their ecology and stormwater dumped sediment on to the habitats of sea creatures.
ARC lawyer Janette Campbell said up to 5 million cu m of earthworks was on the cards and all parties agreed to try their best to limit the amount of sediment washed into streams and the sea.
The Long Bay slopes from Vaughans Rd were the divide between urban and rural Auckland and the ARC wanted careful balancing of effects before deciding the urban development form.
The ARC was concerned to ensure that the rural area in Okura was protected from adverse visual effects of development. It supported large lot zoning along the Vaughans Rd ridgeline and also wanted deep front yards and height restrictions.
This would keep the ridge clear of houses when viewed from either Okura or the park.
For the Vaughans Spur area, the ARC wanted development clustered in the nature of a farm park near the road's end to protect the landform backdrop to Grannies Bay and views from Okura.
A further concern was treatment of the catchment's regionally important archaeological and cultural landscape.
Ms Campbell said Landco's proposal would destroy or modify evidence of both Maori and European occupation.
The ARC called for a heritage protection area, with adjacent development limited to low density.
This would be in addition to landscape protection areas.
Ms Campbell said, however, the ARC approved of the city council's approach to Long Bay land use zoning - drawing guidance from the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act, Marine Reserves Act and several regional and city policies.
These called for urban development to be arranged to avoid adverse effects on the regional park - not the other way round.
