March 26, 2015
Council supports Mana Whenua assessments
Auckland Council has confirmed its support for Cultural Impact Assessments.
The requirements in the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan have come under fire from lobby groups like Democracy Action and Taxpayer Union, who are sceptical about the existence of sites of value to mana whenua and say the process will cost property owners.
But the council’s chief planning officer, Roger Blakely, says amendments agreed on Tuesday by the Auckland Development Committee will ensure the requirements only apply in situations where there is the potential for a resource consent to have an adverse impact on the cultural values of Auckland’s Mana Whenua.
He says the council remains open to discussing the views of submitters.
Dr Blakely says since March 2014 a facilitation service set up to help applicants engage with mana whenua has dealt with about 300 of the 10,000 resource consent applications, of which just 36 resulted in Mana Whenua confirming an assessment was required.
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