Helipad application continues despite opposition
Despite 253 opposing submissions, The Naked Possum Café, in conjunction with Anatoki Helicopters, intends to go ahead with its application to establish a helipad near the café at Kaituna.
Tasman District Council received a total of 265 submissions on the application, of which 253 opposed it outright. The majority of the submissions came from wider Golden Bay (some even from Dunedin and Auckland), with only a handful from the Kaituna area itself. Five submissions requested conditions and only seven expressed support for the venture.
Only two other issues in recent Golden Bay history, namely the expansion of aquaculture boundaries and upgrade plans for the former Pakawau Beach Park, have attracted similar numbers of objections.
Jocelyn Rae of The Naked Possum declined to comment any further, saying she needed some time to “take stock of our position” now that the time for public submissions is over. Both sides, it seems, are now retiring to prepare their punches. Friends of Golden Bay, which has 81 members and made a group submission, felt buoyed by a letter of support from anti-aircraft advocates from Upper Moutere, still smarting at how their airspace was taken over by aviation college traffic out of the nearby Motueka Aerodrome.
Joint applicant Anatoki Helicopters will no doubt be expecting to uphold their legal CAA right to fly wherever they like above 150 metres (500 feet) or at a similar distance from any building or person. Only the 83,000-hectare Tasman Wilderness Area within central Kahurangi National Park is designated as a helicopter-free zone. After legal advice, DOC put in a neutral submission specifically requesting that any flight paths respectfully avoid the Kaituna Track so as not to “compromise the natural quiet atmosphere of the park currently experienced.”
TDC planning officer Laurie Davidson said that because of the number of submissions, the application will almost certainly have to go to a public hearing.
“As we already have several hearings scheduled for early 2010, it probably won’t make the agenda until late February or early March at the very earliest.”
Gerard Hindmarsh
