Airport's battle against district plan 'causing tremendous anger and frustration'
Monday, 6 March 2017
The Invercargill Airport has spent about $150,000 on legal bills, and the board's chairman says it is money that should not have needed to be spent.
Since about 2011, the airport has been in conflict with parts of the Invercargill City Council's proposed annual plan.
The airport board wants changes to the plan's wording. At present the plan would limit the airport to functions with no more than 100 people.
Invercargill Airport chairman Tommy Foggo said they did not believe the 100 person allowance was enough.
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'It belongs to the people of Invercargill and we've invested a lot of money in to it to make it a vibrant, attractive airport,' he said.
The airport was re-opened in April last year after a $13 million airport upgrade.
'We should be able to use it to the best of its ability.'
The airport's notice of appeal to the district plan says it wants an objective and policy introduced to recognise of the value of its infrastructure to the wider community.
The airport was a special part of Southland, Foggo said. As a board, they had to protect its future interests.
Adjustments to the plan could mean greater scope for conventions at the airport.
'We don't want to be restricted in the revenue we can make for Southland, and ratepayers.'
The second area the board wanted adjusted is around noise sensitivity, in relation to nearby properties.
The airport's notice of appeal says management of noise sensitive activities within the noise boundaries for the airport in the proposed plan should accord with current best practice.
Currently, the proposed plan allowed new noise sensitive activities in zones, subject only to acoustic insulation, which would be deemed inappropriate by a national standard.
Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt, who is also an airport board director, said the board wanted a zone which would allow them to fly planes in and out 24 hours a day.
It meant there was a conflict in the plan between the airport and property owners, for example those who may plan to build in Otatara.
Shadbolt said the board's appeal was 'a really difficult case', and he had faced a lot of challenges because of it.
'On one hand I'm an airport director … but I am also mayor.'
The amount they had spent on legal bills was 'causing tremendous anger and frustration' for the board, Shadbolt said.
Shadbolt said he was making a report for the board to address how the conflicts in the plan arose.
Foggo said since 2011 the board had been going through the lengthly process with the council, including employing consultants.
'It [$150,000] is a huge amount of money that we should not have had to spend.'
The airport would now go in to mediation to ensure the changes could occur, Foggo said.
'It's a long journey and we are hoping that we are nearly at the end.'
The district plan is the council's statement of how it wants natural and physical resources managed.
The airport board is one of 16 organisations that have lodged appeals to the Environment Court against the plan.
At a city council regulatory services committee meeting in February, councillors decided that mediation be the first port of call for the appellants.
The council has indicated to the Environment Court that it is willing to meet with the parties to work through mediation.