Policy 6: Activities in the coastal environment

1. In relation to the coastal environment:
1. recognise that the provision of infrastructure, the supply and transport of energy including the generation and transmission of electricity, and the extraction of minerals are activities important to the social, economic and cultural well-being of people and communities;
2. consider the rate at which built development and the associated public infrastructure should be enabled to provide for the reasonably foreseeable needs of population growth without compromising the other values of the coastal environment;
3.  encourage the consolidation of existing coastal settlements and urban areas where this will contribute to the avoidance or mitigation of sprawling or sporadic patterns of settlement and urban growth;
4. recognise tangata whenua needs for papakāinga³, marae and associated developments and make appropriate provision for them;
5. consider where and how built development on land should be controlled so that it does not compromise activities of national or regional importance that have a functional need to locate and operate in the coastal marine area;
6. consider where development that maintains the character of the existing built environment should be encouraged, and where development resulting in a change in character would be acceptable;
7. take into account the potential of renewable resources in the coastal environment, such as energy from wind, waves, currents and tides, to meet the reasonably foreseeable needs of future generations;
8. consider how adverse visual impacts of development can be avoided in areas sensitive to such effects, such as headlands and prominent ridgelines, and as far as practicable and reasonable apply controls or conditions to avoid those effects;
9. set back development from the coastal marine area and other water bodies, where practicable and reasonable, to protect the natural character, open space, public access and amenity values of the coastal environment; and
10. where appropriate, buffer areas and sites of significant indigenous biological diversity, or historic heritage value.
2. Additionally, in relation to the coastal marine area:
1. recognise potential contributions to the social, economic and cultural wellbeing of people and communities from use and development of the coastal marine area, including the potential for renewable marine energy to contribute to meeting the energy needs of future generations;
2. recognise the need to maintain and enhance the public open space and recreation qualities and values of the coastal marine area;
3. recognise that there are activities that have a functional need to be located in the coastal marine area, and provide for those activities in appropriate places;
4. recognise that activities that do not have a functional need for location in the coastal marine area generally should not be located there; and
5.  promote the efficient use of occupied space, including by:
1. requiring that structures be made available for public or multiple use wherever reasonable and practicable;
2. requiring the removal of any abandoned or redundant structure that has no heritage, amenity or reuse value; and
3. considering whether consent conditions should be applied to ensure that space occupied for an activity is used for that purpose effectively and without unreasonable delay.

³Papakāinga – as defined in the Glossary.