North Shore City Council v Auckland Regional Council' | |
---|---|
Court | Environment Court of New Zealand |
Full case name | North Shore City Council v Auckland Regional Council |
Decided | 1 October 1996 |
Citation(s) | [1997] NZRMA 59 |
Transcript(s) | Judgment |
Case history | |
Prior action(s) | [1995] NZRMA 424 (PT) |
Subsequent action(s) | [1995] 3 NZLR 18 (CA) |
Court membership | |
Judge(s) sitting | Sheppard J, P A Catchpole and I G C Kerr |
Keywords | |
Resource Management, Regional Policy Statement, Metropolitan Urban Limit |
North Shore City Council v Auckland Regional Council was a case in the Environment Court of New Zealand concerning the proper interpretation of section five of the Resource Management Act 1991 by planning bodies.
The Environment Court of New Zealand is a specialist court for plans, resource consents and environmental issues. It mainly deals with issues arising under the Resource Management Act, meaning that it covers a wide range of potential future effects of planning applications, which can include such areas as traffic congestion, noise/pollution emissions and social and commercial consequences, rather than just the 'ecological' aspects that could be implied by the 'environmental' term.
The Resource Management Act (RMA) passed in 1991 in New Zealand is a significant, and at times, controversial Act of Parliament. The RMA promotes the sustainable management of natural and physical resources such as land, air and water. New Zealand's Ministry for the Environment describes the RMA as New Zealand's principal legislation for environmental management.
The Auckland Regional Council had publicly notified its proposed regional policy statement in early 1994 which would have restricted urban development with a line of metropolitan urban limits.
The Auckland Regional Council (ARC) was the regional council of the Auckland Region. Its predecessor the Auckland Regional Authority (ARA) was formed in 1963 and became the ARC in 1989. The ARC was subsumed into the Auckland Council on 1 November 2010.
The appellants, the North Shore City Council and the owners of land in the area around Long Bay and Okura River sought to modify the metropolitan urban limits so that an area of some 700 hectares in the area would be zoned within the urban limit [1]
Long Bay is a suburb of North Shore, part of the Auckland metropolitan area in northern New Zealand. The population was 885 in the 2013 census, an increase of 114 from 2006.
The Okura River is a river in the north of the Auckland Region in the North Island of New Zealand. The river rises in the low hills to the south of Silverdale and flows into Karepiro Bay on the Hauraki Gulf. The river is extremely tidal with only a narrow channel being navigable by small craft at low tide.The area is popular for horse riding, riders wait till low tide and then ford the boating channel to ride the estuary and beaches on the northern side.
The Environment Court allowed the appeals in part, "to the extent that the regional council is directed to alter the line of metropolitan urban limits in the proposed regional policy statement so that instead of following Glenvar Road, the line follows the watershed or catchment boundary between the Long Bay and Okura catchments." [2]
In coming to this determination the Court had decided that,
"We have concluded that urbanisation of the part of the subject land in the Okura catchment would necessarily have significant adverse effects on the environment of the Okura Estuary, and that the estuary, its high quality waters and ecosystem, possesses life supporting capacity which deserve to be safeguarded. However we have not accepted that there would necessarily be significant adverse effects of urbanisation on the environment of the Long Bay coast, or on the marine life of the marine reserves." [3]
In coming to its decision the Court had regard to section 5 of the Resource Management Act which states the Act's purpose as promoting sustainable management. The Court held:
"The method of applying s 5 then involves an overall broad judgment of whether a proposal would promote the sustainable management of natural and physical resources. That recognises that the [RMA] has a single purpose. Such a judgment allows for comparison of conflicting considerations and the scale or degree of them, and their relative significance or proportion in the final outcome." [4]
The case established the "overall board judgment" approach to interpretation of section 5 of the Resource Management Act. [5]
In the 2014 decision, Environmental Defence Society v New Zealand King Salmon the Supreme Court declined to follow the "overall broad judgment" approach.
New Zealand is divided into sixteen regions for local government purposes. Eleven are administered by regional councils, and five are administered by unitary authorities, which are territorial authorities that also perform the functions of regional councils. The Chatham Islands Council is similar to a unitary authority, authorised under its own legislation.
Territorial authorities are the second tier of local government in New Zealand, below regional councils. There are 67 territorial authorities: 13 city councils, 53 district councils and the Chatham Islands Council. District councils serve a combination of rural and urban communities, while city councils administer the larger urban areas. Five territorial authorities also perform the functions of a regional council and thus are unitary authorities. The Chatham Islands Council is a sui generis territorial authority that is similar to a unitary authority.
The North Shore is part of the urban area of Auckland, New Zealand, located to the north of the Waitematā Harbour.
Kaipara Harbour is a large enclosed harbour estuary complex on the north western side of the North Island of New Zealand. The northern part of the harbour is administered by the Kaipara District and the southern part is administered by the Auckland Council. The local Māori tribe is Ngāti Whātua.
Pittwater is a semi–mature tide dominated drowned valley estuary, located about 40 kilometres (25 mi) north of the Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia; being one of the bodies of water that separate greater Metropolitan Sydney from the Central Coast.
Port Hacking, an open youthful tide dominated, drowned valley estuary, is located in southern Sydney, New South Wales, Australia approximately 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of Sydney central business district. Port Hacking has its source in the upper reaches of the Hacking River south of Helensburgh, and several smaller creeks, including South West Arm, Bundeena Creek and The Basin and flows generally to the east before reaching its mouth, the Tasman Sea, south of Cronulla and north–east of Bundeena. Its tidal effect is terminated at the weir at Audley, in the Royal National Park. The lower estuary features a substantial marine delta, which over time has prograded upstream. There is also a substantial fluvial of the Hacking River at Grays Point. The two deltas are separated by a deep basin.
A resource consent is the authorisation given to certain activities or uses of natural and physical resources required under the New Zealand Resource Management Act. Some activities may either be specifically authorised by the RMA or be permitted activities authorised by rules in plans. Any activities that are not permitted by the RMA, or by a rule in a plan, require a resource consent before they are carried out.
Lake Macquarie or Awaba is Australia's largest coastal salt water lagoon. Located in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, it covers an area of 110 square kilometres (42.5 sq mi) and is connected to the Tasman Sea by a short channel. Most of the residents of the City of Lake Macquarie live near the shores of the lake.
Kaitiaki is a New Zealand Māori term used for the concept of guardianship, for the sky, the sea, and the land. A kaitiaki is a guardian, and the process and practices of protecting and looking after the environment are referred to as kaitiakitanga.
The D'Entrecasteaux Channel is a body of water located between Bruny Island and the south-east of the mainland of Tasmania, Australia. The channel is the mouth for the estuaries of the Derwent and the Huon Rivers and empties into the Tasman Sea of the South Pacific Ocean. It was sighted by Abel Tasman in 1642 and surveyed in 1792 by Bruni d'Entrecasteaux.
John Bollard was New Zealand's principal Environment Court Judge from April 2003 until his death and had served on the Environment Court from April 1988 until his death in Auckland.
Environmental Defence Society (EDS) is a not-for-profit environmental organisation based in New Zealand. It focuses on issues surrounding the Resource Management Act 1991 and is made up of resource management professionals who are committed to improving environmental outcomes within New Zealand.
Meola Creek is a waterway in Auckland, New Zealand. It is situated in Integrated Catchment Area #1 within Auckland City's drainage network. The catchment consists largely of a natural valley that runs down from the north-east slopes of Mt Albert (Owairaka), north of Mt Albert Road. The upper section of Meola Creek flows along the boundary of the Western Springs College and through the Kerr-Taylor Reserve. The area around the creek is subject to a combination of residential, commercial and recreational activities, which result in the stream being entirely piped upstream of the Chamberlain Park Golf Course, and strongly contaminated with urban pollutants such as zinc and lead.
Entergy Corp. v. Riverkeeper, Inc., 556 U.S. 208 (2009), is a decision by the United States Supreme Court that reviewed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) interpretation of the Clean Water Act regulations with regard to cooling water intakes for power plants. Existing facilities are mandated to use the "Best Technology Available" to "minimize the adverse environmental impact." The issue was whether the agency may use a cost–benefit analysis (CBA) in choosing the Best Available Technology or (BAT) to meet the National Performance Standards (NPS).
The San Francisco Estuary Partnership (Partnership) is one of the 28 National Estuary Programs created in the 1987 Amendments to the Clean Water Act. The Partnership is a non-regulatory federal-state-local collaboration working to restore water quality and manage the natural resources of the San Francisco Bay-Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta estuary. The Partnership works with over 100 municipalities, non-profits, governmental agencies, and businesses and helps develop, find funding for, and implement over 40 projects and programs aimed at improving the health of the estuary. The partnership either directly implements these projects, or administers and manages grants, holds educational workshops and highlights project results. The Partnership is also the official representative for the San Francisco Bay region to the Most Beautiful Bays in the World.
The Long Bay-Okura Marine Reserve is a 980-hectare (2,400-acre) protected area at Long Bay on the North Shore in the Auckland Region of New Zealand. It was created by Order in Council in 1995.
Environmental Defence Society v New Zealand King Salmon was a case in the Supreme Court of New Zealand concerning the proper interpretation of the Resource Management Act 1991 by planning bodies.