Part of the Nelson City Council's consultation on a controversial housing development in the Maitai Valley has been labelled as unreasonable by the Chief Ombudsman.
A large housing development is planned near the start of the tree-lined Maitai Valley. Photo: RNZ / Tracy Neal
The Mahitahi/Bayview housing development was first proposed for the rural valley near central Nelson, two years ago, taking many residents by surprise.
The Save the Maitai group have since campaigned to protect and preserve the valley's rural character for future generations.
The group lodged a complaint last July with the Ombudsman about Nelson City Council's decisions in relation to the proposed development.
Spokesman Dr Aaron Stallard said the findings were a clear vindication of the group's stance.
The group highlighted problems with the consultation, which did not use the known name of the area, did not show a map of the area in the consultation document and omitted the Kākā Valley from a list of urban expansion areas on which the public was asked to comment.
"The failings of the consultation can be seen by the fact it generated only four responses to the most controversial urban development of our time. Council decided that four responses was adequate and pressed ahead, despite knowing of the strong public opposition to development in the Maitai Valley."
Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier partially upheld the complaint, finding that a member of the public reviewing the 2019 Future Development Consultation brochure would not have clearly understood that the council proposed development should occur in areas of the Maitai Valley.
The document gave no acknowledgement or indication that Kākā Valley and Orchard Flats were located within the Maitai Valley, the large scale map showed 64 development areas without annotation and he was not satisfied Nelsonians were sufficiently familiar with the names Kākā Valley and Orchard Flats in the absence of a location descriptor.
Boshier said the shortcomings were not enough to undermine the overall consultation process.
He did not uphold a secondary complaint that the council's overall approach to consultation was unreasonable and contrary to law, or its own policy.
Boshier said the public consultation in 2019 had been superseded by current events, with Nelson City Council currently developing a new Future Development Strategy 2022-2052.
Community consultation for that strategy was held in March and April and will be adopted by both Nelson City and Tasman District Councils later in the year.
Stallard said the group wants Nelson City Council to remove all areas in the Maitai Valley from the Future Development Strategy.
"The public have repeatedly made it clear that they want to protect the valley because of its importance to the physical and mental wellbeing of current and future generations."