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Resolution number WTK/2014/92
MOVED
by Member S Toms, seconded by Deputy Chairperson DA Yates:
That the Waitākere
Ranges Local Board:
a) Provides
formal feedback (by passing resolutions) on the draft Auckland Council Local
Alcohol Policy, noting that the resolutions will be included in the officers’
report to the Local Alcohol Policy Project Hearings Panel.
b)
Notes the entirety of its area is
within a licensing trust area, and that there are relatively few on and off
licenses compared to other areas. Historically the remote coastal villages in
the Waitakere Ranges area have had club licenses only which have been under
community control. The prospect of commercial licensed premises establishing
in these areas is a significant change for the local community and the
character of the area.
7. National significance and heritage features of heritage area
(2)
The heritage features of the heritage area are-
e) the
quietness and darkness of the Waitakere Ranges and the coastal parts
of the area:
i) the
subservience of the built environment to the area’s natural and rural
landscape, which is reflected in—
(i) the
individual identity and character of the coastal villages and their
distinctive scale, containment, intensity, and amenity; and
(ii) the distinctive
harmony, pleasantness, and coherence of the low-density residential and urban
areas that are located in regenerating (and increasingly dominant) forest
settings; and
(iii) the
rural character of the foothills to the east and north and their intricate
pattern of farmland, orchards, vineyards, uncultivated areas, indigenous
vegetation, and dispersed low-density settlement with few urban-scale
activities:
j) the
historical, traditional, and cultural relationships of people, communities,
and tangata whenua with the area and their exercise of kaitiakitanga and
stewardship:
l)
its distinctive local communities:
8.
Heritage Area Objectives
The
objectives of establishing and maintaining the heritage area are—
(b) to
ensure that impacts on the area as a whole are considered when decisions are
made affecting any part of it:
(c) to adopt the
following approach when considering decisions that threaten serious or
irreversible damage to a heritage feature:
(i) carefully
consider the risks and uncertainties associated with any particular course of
action; and
(ii) take
into account the best information available; and
(iii) endeavour
to protect the heritage feature:
(d) to recognise and
avoid adverse potential, or adverse cumulative, effects of activities on the
area’s environment (including its amenity) or its heritage features”
Policy
areas (clause 2)
Broad
Area B (clause 2.2)
1.
Considers that all on and off licence
applications in the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area should require an
Environmental and Cumulative Impact Assessment regardless of risk rating;
2.
Requests that the Local Alcohol Policy
either splits Broad Area B into smaller areas or sub-areas to allow a refined
approach for certain areas, such as the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area or
3.
Requests that the Waitakere Ranges
Heritage Area be given specific recognition as a Broad Area C, which may also
include other heritage and rural conservation areas, like the Gulf Islands;
4.
The reason a request for a further
Broad Area be created specifically for many villages located within the WRHA (which
are not metropolitan centres), is because of the special features of these
areas being:
·
Their isolation and remoteness as villages which
are predominantly residential with narrow winding roads, and where there are not
many other amenities in close proximity;
·
Lack of access to emergency services (for
example, volunteer fire service as first response to accidents);
·
Rugged natural environment and landscape
features including surf beaches, lagoons, high cliffs and walking tracks.
·
Regional Parks Management report that
since 2006 there have been four serious injuries including two deaths where
alcohol was involved, within the Regional Parks on the coast (all accidents
occurred where people fell from Lion Rock).
5.
Requests a map outlining the WRHA is
included as a further appendix of the policy under either Broad Area B (sub
area) or Broad Area C;
Priority
Overlay (clause 2.3)
4.
Supports Glen Eden being included in
the priority overlay.
Policy
tools (clause 3)
Environmental
and Cumulative Impacts Assessments includes the following additional criteria
(clause 3.1.1)
5.
After c), include a new clause for on
and off-license applications in remote areas (this could be where taxi
services are predominantly not available), which attract high visitor
numbers, to require that an assessment be made of the potential harms
associated with increased incidents of drink-driving or engaging in
potentially risky outdoor activities while under the influence of alcohol,
(for example, swimming at dangerous beaches, rock climbing or bush walking).
6.
Under f) Amenities, it currently reads
“the existing amenity levels and reasonable expectations for amenity levels
in the assessment area”. The local board requests either in this clause or
through the creation of a new clause, that all applications within the WRHA,
must consider the objectives of the heritage area to protect the significant
environment and amenity values (heritage features) of the act.
7.
The officer when in receipt of an
application within the WRHA, and which requires an ECIA assessment, will need
to be familiar with the WRHA Act 2008, in particular its objectives in order
to give it due consideration.
Where
hearing required (clause 3.1.3)
8.
Notes that the hearing requirements
given relate to where an application is declined or conditions applied, and
would recommend that the level of community opposition or number of
objections be considered as a factor in whether a hearing should be held.
c) Delegates that the chair can make
any minor changes to finalise the formal feedback.
CARRIED
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