Seawall plan gets landowner’s nod

Five property owners with seaside houses at Awaroa in Abel Tasman National Park have been granted landowner consent to build a timber seawall on the esplanade reserve to help protect their homes from erosion.

Those property owners also plan to reinstate a walkway along the reserve that would provide access to their properties and public access across the front.

Tasman District councillors on Thursday agreed to give council consent, as landowner of the esplanade, for the construction of the seawall on the western end of the reserve, which has been eroding since 2015.

Many people chipped in for a 2016 Givealittle campaign that raised $2.8 million to buy Awaroa Beach nearby, at the mouth of the inlet.

In February 2018, the area was hammered when ex-Tropical Cyclone Fehi hit the Nelson region. The erosion of the reserve has accelerated over the past two years following the eastward movement of the sandspit at the entrance to the inlet, which has left it more exposed.

The proposed structure is a 130m-long timber retaining wall with an exposed face, about 1.5m–2m high. Behind the wall, the 1.8m-wide walkway is earmarked. A battered slope between 2m and 2.5m high would extend back from there to the properties.

Construction costs are to be

covered by the property owners.

The landowner consent from the council is subject to the property owners entering into a Licence to Occupy for the seawall to be constructed on the reserve and an agreement outlining their responsibility for the ongoing maintenance and any liability arising from the structure.

Council reserves and facilities manager Richard Hollier told councillors he understood the agreement would be made binding through a mechanism such as a covenant on the property title, so it became enduring.

‘‘It is quite important ... that it is binding on any future landowner as well.’’

Hollier said the council had incurred ‘‘considerable costs to date in the process’’.

It was happy to provide plants for the bank above the walkway, but

that would be the limit of the council’s contribution to the project, he said.

Councillors agreed to add a point in the resolution outlining that contribution limit.

Regarding some unconsented walls to the east, Hollier said the council was having a ‘‘conversation’’ about removing them and creating a backstop structure further back into the dune area.

Meanwhile, the application for landowner consent to construct the seawall was assessed under a draft Coastal Erosion Protection Structures on Council Reserve Land policy. That draft document is due to go out for public consultation in October.

Councillor Celia Butler questioned the appropriateness of using the draft policy to assess the application.

‘‘This is yet to go through the consultation and acceptance by council,’’ Butler said. ‘‘Has the Awaroa decision . . . set a precedent and what will happen to another situation – to be specific, Pakawau – if [after] consultation, this draft policy is amended or is actually not passed by council?’’

Hollier said he did not believe considering the Awaroa application at this stage ‘‘necessarily’’ created a precedent.

‘‘There are significant differences in each situation and each one needs to be considered on its merits taking account of the erosion process and so on that are happening at specific sites,’’ he said. ‘‘It was also useful I think for them and for us to have an application ... to see how well the policy worked.’’

Mayor Tim King described the document as an outline of the ‘‘process of following the law’’.

‘‘In some ways it isn’t really a policy as such and our ability to change any of the legal components is non-existent any way.’’

The Awaroa seawall would be a good example to use during the consultation, demonstrating ‘‘we can follow the process, and it is possible to step through it ... and you can get landowner approval to construct on a reserve a protection structure,’’ King said.

Councillor Chris Hill said plenty of people lived in Golden Bay with their houses ‘‘perched on the edge of the beach’’.

‘‘For years, people have been trying to find a way to be able to get some protection out there,’’ Hill said, adding she was happy to see a draft policy the council could take out for public consultation.