Regional infrastructure

15.2 Providing for regionally significant infrastructure
Background to the issue
The region's network utilities and other infrastructure are physical resources of considerable importance to Taranaki. They support human settlements and enable people and communities to meet their social, economic and cultural needs. Some network utilities and other infrastructure are of national as well as regional importance.

Network utilities are utilities which form part of a network and include the supply and distribution of gas, electricity, telecommunications, radio communications, water, stormwater, sewerage and wastewater systems, roads, railways, airports, navigational aids, and meteorological operations and associated support structures throughout the region.

Taranaki is generally well connected and serviced from a roading infrastructural perspective relative to its size and population. However, there are roading and transport infrastructure issues that require ongoing attention if Taranaki is to meet its current and anticipated growth and development needs. Some of these issues concern route security and reliability (particularly in relation to State Highway 3 north and south and State Highway 43), network efficiency and capacity (for example in relation to our rural roads and urban New Plymouth) and safety issues such as passing opportunities, road and bridge widths etc.

Taranaki has approximately 2,700 kilometres of sealed rural roads, including state highways, in Taranaki. In addition, there are many kilometres of sealed roads in urban areas and other roads throughout the region. These provide vital access and communication links to and within the region. The Marton to New Plymouth and Stratford to Taumarunui railway connects the region with the national rail network and provide an important freight transport service. Port Taranaki is the only major deep-water port on the west coast of New Zealand and is a facility of regional significance. New Plymouth Airport is the only fully commercial air freight and passenger airport in the region.

The region also contains an extensive network of oil and gas and associated product pipelines. These pipelines run from various oil and gas field to production stations, the Maui and Kapuni gas treatment plants, the Omata Tank Farm, Port Taranaki, major industrial petrochemical processing plants, thermal power stations in New Plymouth and Stratford and to domestic consumers throughout the North Island. High voltage electricity transmission lines also run from the New Plymouth and Stratford power stations to various locations throughout the North Island. In addition, a network of power transmission lines service hydroelectricity stations and other electricity generators.

The region's telecommunication and radio communication network provides an important everyday and emergency facility to the people of the region and to the business community. Other examples include the region's flood protection and land drainage schemes, which are important for the protection of individual and community assets, productive capability, community safety and other utility networks. Hydroelectric dams on the Waiwhakaiho, Manganui, Patea, Waiaua rivers are also significant.

There is a need to recognise the positive social, economic and environmental benefits that accrue nationally and regionally from the establishment and continued operation of network utilities and other regionally significant infrastructure. There is also a need to manage the potential for certain activities to disrupt, or risk disruption to, the safe and efficient operation of network utilities and other regionally significant infrastructure. Where incompatible activities have been allowed to establish too close to certain regionally significant infrastructure, e.g. electricity transmission lines there is increased exposure to adverse effects such as the accumulation of dust on conductors, risk to structural integrity of pylons, restricted access for maintenance, and reduction in safety distances or public safety generally.

As with other forms of use and development, there are also issues associated with avoiding, remedying and mitigating adverse effects on the environment arising from the construction, use and maintenance of regionally significant infrastructure. However, such matters are addressed elsewhere in this Regional Policy Statement.

The significant issues in relation to Taranaki's regionally significant infrastructure are:

Objective

INF OBJECTIVE 1

To provide for the continued safe and efficient operation of the region's network utilities and other infrastructure of regional significance (including where this is of national importance), while avoiding, remedying or mitigating adverse effects on the environment.

Policies
Provision for physical infrastructure of regional significance

INF POLICY 1

Provision will be made for the efficient and effective establishment, operation, maintenance and upgrading of network utilities and other physical infrastructure of regional significance (including where this is of national importance) and provision for any adverse effects of their establishment to be avoided, remedied or mitigated as far as is practicable.

Adverse effects on physical infrastructure of regional significance

INF POLICY 2

The adverse effects of subdivision, use and development on the safety, efficiency, operation, maintenance and upgrading of the region's network utilities and on other physical infrastructure of regional significance (including where this is of national importance) will be avoided or mitigated.

 Buffer corridors

INF POLICY 3

Buffer corridors shall be identified so that development incompatible with the National Grid is not located within such corridors and thereby ensuring reverse sensitivity effects are avoided.

Integrated planning

INF POLICY 4

New land use generated by growth and development and the associated local, regional and national infrastructure to service that growth should be integrated and planned alongside one another to avoid either constraints being imposed on necessary growth and development by the lack of supporting infrastructure or to avoid unsustainable demands being placed on infrastructure to meet new growth.

Explanation of the policies

Policy 1 provides for the establishment of efficient and effective network utilities and other infrastructure and for the adverse effects of their establishment to be avoided, remedied and mitigated as far as is practicable.  For example, the linear nature of the National Grid determines its form, shape and location across a number of different environments throughout New Zealand. When new transmission lines are proposed, technical, operational and security requirements associated with the transmission network can limit the extent to which it is feasible to avoid or mitigate all adverse environmental effects. Consequently in some cases it may be more appropriate for new transmission lines to traverse parts of a sensitive environment to achieve a route with lower overall adverse effects. These situations will need to be determined on a case-by-case basis. Issues relating to adverse effects on the environment arising from the construction and maintenance of network utilities and other regionally significant infrastructure (e.g. stormwater run-off, emissions to air, noise, discharges to land and water) are already addressed through other sections of the Regional Policy Statement. Accordingly, objectives, policies and methods of implementation in this section address recognising and providing for network utilities and other regionally significant infrastructure.

Policy 2 ensures that any adverse effects of subdivision, use and development, which would reduce the safe and efficient operation of network utilities and other regionally significant infrastructure, are avoided or mitigated.

The operation, maintenance and future development of the transmission network can be significantly constrained by the adverse environmental impact of encroaching activities and development (reverse sensitivity). Identifying appropriate buffer corridors under Policy 3 would ensure that non-compatible land uses are kept away from the lines and that any potential adverse effects of third party activities on the transmission network are appropriately managed to ensure the ongoing operation, maintenance, upgrading and development of the electricity transmission network is not compromised.

Activities that may have reverse sensitivity effects on the safe and efficient operation of regionally significant infrastructure should locate in areas where that infrastructure will not be affected.

Policy 4 recognises the need for planning for growth and development and the provision of local, regional and national infrastructure to proceed side-by-side in a coordinated and integrated way. This is to ensure that necessary growth and development is properly and appropriately serviced and also to ensure that unsustainable demands are not placed on Infrastructure. If this integration does not occur there is the potential for growth and development to be constrained or directed to less favourable areas with associated social, economic and environmental costs. A lack of integration may also lead to unsustainable demands being placed on infrastructure and funding leading to a reduction in the safety and efficiency of infrastructure such as the roading network from new growth or to inadequate provision of infrastructure . Hence the policy ensures there is closer integration between growth and development generated land use, roading and other infrastructure provision and funding at local, regional and national levels.

Related policies

All policies in Sections 5.1 [Soil erosion]; Section 5.2 [Soil health]; Section 5.3 [Hazardous substances and contaminated sites]; Section 6.1 [Sustainable water allocation]; Section 6.2 [Surface water quality]; Section 6.5 [Land drainage and associated diversions]; Section 6.6 [Use of river and lake beds]; Section 6.7 [Public access to rivers and lakes]; Section 7.1 [Air quality]; Section 7.2 [Climate change]; Section 8.1 [Natural character of the coastal environment]; Section 8.2 [Coastal water quality]; Section 8.3 [Public access to the coastal environment]; Policies 1 and 2 in Section 9.1 [Indigenous biodiversity]; all policies in Section 10.1 [Natural features and landscapes]; Section 10.2 [Historic heritage]; Section 10.3 [Amenity values]; Section 13 [Minerals]; Section 14 [Energy]; Section 15.1 [Sustainable urban development], and Section 16 [Issues of significance to iwi].

Methods of implementation

The Taranaki Regional Council will:

Territorial authorities may wish to consider the following methods:

Principal reasons for adopting the objective, policies and methods

The objective, policies and methods of implementation establish a policy framework for providing for regionally significant infrastructure and network utilities. These network utilities and infrastructure are important for the economic and social wellbeing of people and communities in Taranaki and for their health and safety and play a vital role in the operation of daily life. During emergency situations, some are of national as well as regional importance. Provision for the safe, reliable and efficient functioning of such facilities and infrastructure and their maintenance and upgrading is provided for in this document in recognition of the importance of such physical resources. This Regional Policy Statement also recognises that it is not always practical or reasonable for network utilities or infrastructure to co-exist with other major utilities and that operational constraints may also exist and these must be recognised and provided for.

Through the implementation of regional plans and regional transport management strategies, the Council will recognise and provide for the positive benefits that accrue from the construction, use and maintenance of regionally significant infrastructure and network utilities.

Territorial authorities, through their control of land use and urban development, have further opportunities to recognise and provide for the safe and efficient establishment and operation of important physical infrastructural assets. Territorial authorities also have further opportunities to recognise and provide for closer integration between land use and infrastructure provision and funding in order to assist with the strategic integration of local, regional and national roading and other infrastructure and land use.

The policies and methods build on current approaches to this issue. They have proven to be acceptable to date in terms of promoting effective integrated management and achieving desired environmental outcomes and are considered appropriate having regard to their efficiency and effectiveness and their benefits and costs.

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