Pyes Pa structure plan

Location and local authority

The Pyes Pa Structure Plan straddles the Tauranga City and Western Bay of Plenty District Council areas. The site is in the southern sector of Tauranga City and the City lies within the central part of the Western Bay of Plenty District, which surrounds it.

The Pyes Pa Structure Plan was prepared by the consultants for Grasshopper Properties Ltd who at the same time completed a private Plan Change to the two District Plans, a subdivisional consent for 250 ha owned by the applicants and stormwater, earthworks and other resource consents to enable the development of that land over the coming ten year period. Construction commences in 2005.

The Pyes Pa site is one of several growth nodes identified in the SmartGrowth Study undertaken jointly by Tauranga City Council, Western Bay of Plenty District Council and Environment Bay of Plenty.

Design detail

Structure plan process

The Plan was developed through the following process:

Analysis of opportunities and constraints – including the identification of ecological, archaeological, landscape and heritage/cultural values, infrastructure capacities and limitations, contaminated land assessment, and geotechnical constraints.
Simultaneous preparation of a stormwater management plan for the entire catchment of the structure plan which takes into account the up stream and down stream catchment functions. This resulted in the identification of primary flow paths as detention ponding systems including a major “lake” in the valley floor. Consideration was given to whether the conventional or more “green” systems were to be used.
Determination of the roading/transportation links bearing in mind the regional networks and through traffic modelling the potential effect of the development of the catchment on the sub region.
Fitting arterial and collector roads and land use to the environment particularly the stormwater management system All of this done within an urban design framework that had been previously determined in the SmartGrowth Study for the subregion.
Land use decisions included providing large lot residential opportunities in escarpment areas where geotechnical difficulties are evident and residential and business zone overlain with the passive reserves network.
Consultation and refinement.
Lodgement of Plan Change including Structure Plan, Zoning Maps and Plan rules.

Tauranga district plan urban growth area structure plan - Pyes Pa West

See image at full size including text description

Land use mix

The Structure Plan covers an area of 430 hectares and includes the provision of:

196 ha of residential zonings which provide for conventional housing and higher density housing which is at a set minimum density and large lot residential on the escarpments and low-lying areas that present natural hazard constraints for conventional building.

10ha of Commercial business land to cater for a 2ha neighbourhood centre and 8ha of commercial including retailing for the southern sector’s needs

14ha of Industrial business land to cater for an integrate live / work environment.

15.1ha of neighbourhood and walkway/cycleway reserves to provide for the “play” element of integrated development.

0.50 ha of community reserve adjacent to the neighbourhood shopping centre and 51.2ha of stormwater reserve within which is provided the stormwater detention and treatment ponds and the floodways for the Kopurererua Stream that traverse the site.

The Structure Plan shows the location and sizing of the trunk water and sewer lines and the layout of the arterial road that lies to the west of the site and provides access to the collector roads that generally run in a north-south direction. The arterial road will be a State highway in the future and has been designed to Transit New Zealand standards.

Total Capital Cost for Council infrastructure services is $27.39 million. (Source Council Decision Schedules.) There are additional capital costs associated with the arterial road.

Figure: Pyes Pa notified structure plan

See figure at full size including text description

Consultation

Preliminary consultation was undertaken by group meetings with all landowners within the Structure Plan area when the analytical work was underway. More formal consultation with landowners in the Structure Plan area and those in adjoining existing suburbs and rural areas was initiated by personalised invitation to ratepayers to Open Days ( 4.00 – 7.00pm ) to consider Structure Plan detail. Specific meetings were also held with key stakeholders including the Ministry of Education, Transit New Zealand, Department of Conservation, and the local authorities. Feedback was taken on the draft proposals. A more refined Structure Plan was shown at a later Open Day concerning the subdivision, earthworks and stormwater proposals.

Tangata Whenua consultation was undertaken as a series of meetings with hapu representatives after contact was made with the local authority iwi liaison representative and the iwi to confirm who should be contacted.

The meetings began before any concept designs were undertaken, and built on the results of an archaeological survey of the entire area. The hapu representatives accompanied the archaeologist on that survey work. Mitigation measures for urbanisation were agreed including riparian planting with nominated species and the protection of certain archaeological sites.

Consultation with Tangata Whenua and interested landowners/submitters was ongoing after lodgement to resolve issues prior to the Hearing and during the appeal period. Two appeals were resolved within one month.

Statutory method and rules

The Structure Plan and associated District Plan rules were adopted by the two local authorities through the Resource Management Act 1991 processes. This involved the Western Bay of Plenty District Council adopting the whole of the Tauranga District Plan as it relates to the Pyes Pa West Urban Growth area. The Plan Change included financial contributions, which were part of the Plan Change, but within months the Tauranga City Council incorporated the financial values into a contributions programme operating under the Local Government Act. Western Bay of Plenty District Council continues to apply the same contributions regime but under the RMA provisions.

The Plan Change included changes to the:

Planning Maps – rezoning only the Grasshopper land and not the wider Structure Plan area – that is anticipated, as other landowners so desire.
Roading hierarchy diagram to accommodate the new arterial/future State highway as a bypass of the existing Pyes Pa suburb.
Objectives, Policies and Rules, particularly rules on:
- The nominated housing density of 15 houses per hectare average in the residential zone and the Staging of housing.
- Comprehensive developments on the Medium Rise Policy areas are required to meet standards and terms for:
  - Streetscape, neighbourhood character and amenity.
  - Building form.
  - Outlook and outdoor space.
  - Visual and aural privacy.
  - Landscaping.
  - Traffic, parking, access, connectivity, pedestrian accessibility and safety.
- Stormwater management criteria for implementation at the subdivision and development stage
- Financial contributions for the infrastructure to be provided within the growth node but also off site in the system to support the new suburb. This is exclusive of subdivision services. Contribution values are:

	Residential (SIF)	Commercial Business 1 and Industrial Business Zone	2 ha Council Business
Roading	2605.67	$18.45	$78,170.10
Stormwater	2521.80	$4.04	$75,654.00
Wastewater	2334.94	$2.88	$70,048.20
Water	253.91	$0.38	$7,617.30
Reserves	3057.33	-	$3,057.30 for each dwelling unit
Total per lot	10,773.65	Total per m² 25.75	Total $234,548.90 plus reserves contributions for dwellings

Source: Council decision

Unique features

The Structure Plan straddles the local authority boundary between Tauranga City and Western Bay of Plenty District and the Plan Change was applied by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council adopting the entire Tauranga City District Plan to ensure consistency of rules within the growth node. Writing a special section in the Western Bay of Plenty District Plan was rejected when it was found that portions of most sections of the existing Plan applied.
The local authorities collaborated and agreed that the Tauranga City Code of Practice and levels of services for water, sewer, roading and reserves would be applied throughout the 430ha site.
The local authorities collaborated and agreed to share water supplies in that the Waiari source earmarked for the Western Bay including Te Puke is to be used in the eastern city suburbs and the Tauranga western-located sources are to be used for the central/west and southern sector.
Transit New Zealand agreed to accept in the future the arterial road built to their required standards and advance funding to an agreed level by the private developer, Grasshopper.
The proponent, Grasshopper Properties Ltd, funded the research, analysis and preparation of the Structure Plan for the entire area despite having an interest in only 250ha of the 430ha involved.
The Structure Plan was designed to prescribed levels of service for urban development that had been determined by the sub regional SmartGrowth study adopted by Tauranga City Council, Western Bay of Plenty District Council and Environment Bay of Plenty. The levels of services are leading the market and this project is the first to apply this approach in the region. The standards are:
- A required housing density of at least 15 houses per hectare in the residential zones.
- The provision of a minimum of 64m 2 of employment land per capita – be it commercial or industrial.
- The provision of public reserves as follows:
  - Provision of 1.7ha/1,000 persons for active reserves.
  - Provision of 1.7ha/1,000 persons for passive reserves including neighbourhood and cycleways.
  - Provision of 0.05ha/1,000 persons community facilities.
- Stormwater reserves and historic reserves are additional to the above recreational quote as the passive reserves include neighbourhood reserves located at 400m intervals being within five minutes walk of all homes and a minimum area of 2,000 m². The walkways/cycleways are to provide off-road connectivity about the suburb.
The application of a staging rule in that the required density rule of 15 houses per hectare had to be met before the next stage lots could be developed. The more intensive housing areas (20 houses per ha) on the approved subdivision plan are in larger lots of at least 3,000 m² and comprehensive residential development is a controlled activity to ensure comprehensive development and the achievement of nominated design and appearance matters.
As a private Plan Change the entire analytical and approval process was completed in 18 months to meet commercial timeframes. This was exceptionally fast and was achieved by the collaborative approach of the Councils and in particular the commissioning of an independent facilitator to speed up the analysis and audit process and write the advisory Planning report.
The Pyes Pa Structure Plan project was awarded the Resource Management Law Association Documentation Award in 2004. The citation states “An example of an innovative process and a collaborative approach to urban planning which advances the theory and practice of resource management.”

Lessons learnt

The quantum of employment land to be provided in the growth cell particularly the proportion of retailing to be provided as distinct to the provision of commercial and industrial was debated. This is leading to further refinements in the SmartGrowth levels of supply with regards to type of business provision and level of provision in the hierarchy of likely centres.
An open and early consultation process with maximum flow of information at all times facilitated ready resolution of issues. Attention was given to each landowner’s issues and the proponent was actively involved in all consultation meetings. This approach continued throughout the 18-month project period.
Completion of the Stormwater Management Plan for the Structure Plan gave an early and clear understanding of the location and management regimes to be applied, thus enabling the Structure Plan to be accurate in terms of the land available for development and consequently the yield of household equivalents for servicing analysis.
With CEO support, the processing of the Plan Change and associated resource consents was completed within seven months including the appeal period which fits well with the commercial requirements of the market.
Prescriptive levels of service for land use determined at a District level must be reviewed and manipulated at the structure plan level to allow for the specific features to tailor the outcomes. In this case:
- The topography manipulated the manner in which the collector roads provided the desired connectivity.
- The Council's active reserve requirements resulted in provision being made off site on more desirable land.
- The business quota was not met due to the difficult ground conditions in the obvious locations and the knowledge that additional prospects were located in close proximity but off-site.

Within this page