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LIUDD Case Studies – Taupo

Background

The District of Taupo surrounds Lake Taupo, the largest and deepest lake in the North Island. The medium-sized town of Taupo is a tourist and holiday centre that is experiencing considerable demand for new housing estates. Development pressure is considerable, especially to the west of the town where a rolling topography affords spectacular lake views. Other recent subdivisions include the 200-lot Wharewhaka estate to the east of Taupo, near the lake edge. State Highway One will in the near future be diverted from its present route through the town and along the lake edge, to the eastern periphery of the town. Taupo District Council plans to gradually urbanise the strip of land between the existing urban area and the new bypass. This staged development in Taupo East provides opportunities for the increasing uptake of sustainable development approaches such as LIUDD.

Development pressure in Taupo occurs within an environment that is both treasured and vulnerable. Retention of landscape quality around the lake is dependent upon the protection of prominent headlands and ridges and the maintenance or restoration where possible of locally distinctive indigenous vegetation. The lake is valued for its water clarity, aesthetic appeal, suitability for contact recreation, and support of a world-renowned trout fishery. Over the past decade, however, some confined bays have begun to show signs of excessive weed growth and reduced water quality. It has been determined that the availability of nitrogen is a key factor currently limiting algal growth. In addition to limiting nutrient inputs to the lake from such sources as sewage effluents and farming runoff, there is also a need to minimise the accumulation of toxic contaminants particularly in those bays adjacent to urban areas.

CUES team members began discussions with Taupo District Council in late 2003 to determine opportunities for collaboration that might lead to the uptake of LIUDD approaches by Council in both new and established developments. At this time, Taupo was already avoiding direct discharge of stormwater to the lake by infiltrating stormwater at-source to the porous pumice soils following pretreatment. This was occurring on private property, on street verges, and in designated stormwater management corridors. Taupo District Council was already therefore incorporating low impact stormwater devices, such as swales, within some new housing areas. However, they were enthusiastic about exploring other LIUDD dimensions related to urban form, biodiversity enhancement, and monitoring of stormwater devices and corridors.

Presentation to CUES internal LIUDD workshop, October 2004 ( 2647 KB)
Presentation to Taupo District Council, December 2004 ( 4543 KB)

Also at this time the council was beginning preparation of the Taupo West Rural Structure Plan as a step towards a future district plan change. The council invited CUES members to sit in on the deliberations of Steering and Working Groups established to give guidance and stakeholder input to the Plan preparation process. This participation, in regular meetings throughout 2004, provided an opportunity to explain to consultants and staff preparing the plan, as well as to all community and departmental representatives, what LIUDD was about and how it might be incorporated. There were opportunities to present some of this information as submissions both informal and formal (see below). CUES members were also asked to prepare a series of maps to demonstrate a ‘low impact’ development form for a rural residential area such as that of Taupo West. The result was a series of three maps and explanatory notes that were displayed at a public consultation workshop in Taupo West. Feedback on these concepts and inputs by CUES members to the working group deliberations together influenced development of the Taupo West Rural Structure Plan. The plan, as finally released, incorporated some aspects of LIUDD conveyed to consultants, council staff and stakeholders during the plan-preparation discussions.

Following the public release of the Proposed Taupo West Rural Structure Plan, the council received submissions, and hearings were subsequently held in late November, 2004. CUES had made a formal submission dated 29 September 2004 ( 193 KB) and attended hearings. At these hearings there was insufficient time available to traverse all the issues raised in our submission on LIUDD. An invitation was extended and accepted by CUES to return to elaborate on the relevance and appropriateness of the approach to the Taupo West area, to the council committee as part of the hearings process. Council decided in February 2005 to put the structure planning process for Taupo West on hold and to undertake a district-wide growth strategy project. In part this reflected a growing awareness of the need to provide a context for development and in the process incorporate LIUDD principles. CUES was consulted in the early stages of this strategy, which was completed and released for comment in late March 2006.

Subsequent to CUES involvement in planning issues for the Taupo District other CUES members were busy in Taupo researching the design and functionality of current approaches to stormwater management particularly in the Brentwood Estate of Acacia Bay, Wharewhaka, and other parts of Taupo East. This included:

The effect of earth-working on infiltration rates in stormwater overland flow paths, gullies and swales.
The effectiveness of bioretention strips at mitigating road runoff.
The design of revegetation and landscaping that enhances stormwater treatment and capacity, biodiversity values, recreational quality, aesthetic values and ease of maintenance.

Low impact rural-residential subdivision design

A series of three maps and background information are outlined below in the downloadable documents. Note: these maps need to be read in conjunction with the explanatory text.

The following maps have been drawn to demonstrate how rural-residential subdivision might be carried out in a manner that reduces impact on the natural environment and protects or even enhances rural amenity. The maps are intentionally of no known location, that is, the location has been simulated as a demonstration. As the effects of subdivision are better able to be understood and managed on a water catchment basis this is used to define the planning area in the maps.

Map 1 shows the catchment in its rural condition prior to subdivision. It is typical of much of New Zealand being predominantly pastoral with remnants of native bush, a small wetland, a network of streams with no bankside vegetation, and a block of exotic forestry. There are four landowners all of whom, we will assume for this exercise, wish to subdivide their land. There is a single road passing through the catchment.

Map 1

Map 2 shows a traditional or conventional way of rural-residential subdivision into 4-ha blocks. This subdivision shows little consideration for the topography and natural features such as streams, wetlands and bush remnants. The number of roads is greatly increased to service the many houses. The construction of roads and houses involves earthworks sometimes in unsuitable steep or streamside locations with soil washing off into streams and eventually into lakes or harbours. Steep hillsides, highly visible ridgelines, wetlands, streams and bush receive little protection.

Map 2

Map 3 shows the catchment as it could be subdivided to take into consideration natural features. The layout is shaped to fit the topography. The stream corridor is protected and replanted in a combination of trees and ground-level vegetation that will filter out sediment and contaminants that would otherwise flow into the stream during rainfall periods. The stream corridor might be made wide enough to accommodate paths for bicycles, horses and pedestrians. If all the streams in the catchment are protected like this there could be a network of such paths throughout the whole area thereby helping to reduce the need for so many roads. Wetlands and existing areas of bush would also be protected and if possible extended and restored. Ideally steep land, headlands and ridgelines would be used for sustainable forms of forestry rather than for pasture, cropping or housing thereby protecting them from erosion and preserving rural views. Rural blocks for horticulture, pasture or additional forestry could occupy the less-steep land between the steep forestry blocks and the stream corridors. Provided they are not part of the flood plain, these might be the least-impact areas for later urban intensification if deemed desirable. If houses are clustered fewer access roads are needed, and sewage and water servicing is easier. Stormwater would be treated in raingardens or swales instead of being piped to waterways. Residents might own single or multiple lots in the catchment. House clusters located at the intersection of several converging agricultural blocks would provide direct access for residents to adjacent blocks.

Map3

Downloadable version:

Explanatory text (221 KB)
Map 1 ( 5925 KB)
Map 2 ( 1604 KB)
Map 3 ( 2334 KB)

Reflections on CUES involvement in the Taupo Case Study to date

The following are some potential benefits of a development in Taupo West of the type advocated by CUES. Note, however, that these are just that, ‘potential’, and the influence of CUES to date is just a beginning of a chain of ‘plan-changing, consenting and development’ steps that would need to follow to make it a reality. The potential benefits might include: a decrease in the need and cost to council and ratepayers for roads, stormwater piping, water treatment and delivery, and centralised sewage treatment; increased terrestrial and wetland biodiversity, protection of streams and the lake from contaminant discharge and increased storm flows; increased efficiency of stormwater treatment corridors and devices; increased choice of lifestyle for residents (e.g. living in the country without caring for unwanted farmland); reduced rate burden for residents; and landscape with reduced scars of previous pastoral farming degradation.

The Taupo West experience contributed to the refinement of the van Roon and van Roon (2005) LIUDD principles and implementation actions paper completed in June 2005 (CUES Working Paper 051). This paper sets the framework and ‘yardstick’ for the LIUDD programme. As demonstrated by the Taupo experience, the critical importance of site-selection as the key determinant of development impact is recognised by placing it near the top of the hierarchy of principles and actions as a secondary principle. The Proposed Taupo Growth Strategy should play a role in determining whether Taupo West is in fact a priority location to accommodate future demand for low-density residential development in the Taupo District.