Orewa's artificial reef comes a step closer

The reef will provide a home for marine life, as well as a buffer for storm waves. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Promoters of an artificial reef at Orewa have satisfied Auckland Council officials that their bid for resource consent is ready for a public hearing.

An application - backed by a 600-page assessment of environmental and ecological effects - was lodged with the former Auckland Regional Council nearly three years ago.

It stalled while officials sought more details, until the Super City special projects team took it over.

Orewa Beach Reef Charitable Trust chairman Zane Taylor said the project consent application would be publicly notified on Thursday.

The community had put $500,000 into the project, believing it was the most sustainable method to stop the sand being washed away from the 3km-long beach, he said.

Sand levels needed to be held to give a wider dry section for walking, a buffer from the full force of stormy seas and a stable foredune.

Redistributing sand around the beach with machinery had cost the council up to $70,000 a time.

Mr Taylor said the public notification would give people a month to make submissions which would be taken into account in a council planner's assessment of the project.

He hoped for a public hearing and decision by commissioners this year.

The long-term proposal is to use sandbags to build a salient of four submerged reef systems, each of three reefs, between 375m and 700m offshore. But initially, a reef would be built to affect only 600m of the beach "to monitor how it is working before we do anything else".

"It's fully reversible - the containers are filled with sand of a similar grade to the beach sand and can be emptied and removed."