Backing for quarry plan

The proposed Seadown quarry should be approved, a planner appointed to assist the commissioner hearing the application believes.

Presenting a supplementary report on the fourth day of Rooney Holdings' resource consent hearing yesterday, senior resource management planner Neil Sheerin told commissioner Patricia Harte that after considering additional information supplied by the applicant he now recommended the application be approved, subject to the imposition of appropriate conditions.

Rooney Holdings wants to build a quarry on a 66-hectare site at Seadown. The quarry would operate for up to 50 years.

The Timaru District Council appointed Mrs Harte to hear the application as the council itself was a submitter to the application.

Initially Mr Sheerin had recommended the consent be declined because insufficient information was supplied by the firm.

Since then additional information has been received, including landscape, noise effects and traffic-impact assessments. In light of that, Mr Sheerin has recommended the consent be issued with conditions.

He admitted his recommendations were not binding on the commissioner, adding it should not be assumed she will reach the same conclusions or recommendations.

Mrs Harte adjourned the hearing yesterday and will reconvene on February 25 to hear evidence from submitters who chose not to speak this week as they had not had enough time to consider the additional information supplied by Rooney's.

Mr Sheerin told yesterday's hearing he still considered the quarry should only operate from 7am to 5pm Monday to Saturday, excluding public holidays, rather than the longer 6.30am to 7pm hours Rooney's were suggesting. He would want to see crushing limited to 9am to 5pm, a further measure to mitigate any actual or potential adverse noise effects. He wanted to see a monitoring condition included.

Timaru District Council environmental health officer Jonathan Cowie recommended the quarry only be allowed to operate from 7am to noon on Saturday not to 5pm as Mr Sheerin suggested. He recommended the shorter Saturday hours to protect the health and wellbeing of the surrounding community.

Mr Cowie wanted to see a two-metre earth bund and vegetation on all the site's boundaries.

"This would provide psycho-acoustical benefits, enhance aesthetic appeal and may aid in reducing any dust nuisance to the surrounding community caused by vehicle movements and wind effect."

To reduce dust, Mr Sheerin recommended conditions including irrigating the site, no more than two hectares of the site being exposed during extraction, and stockpiling topsoil and aggregate on the quarry floor at least two metres below the natural ground level.

He suggested crushing equipment be located on the quarry floor at least two metres below ground level and as far away as practicable from the Seadown and Waipopo boundaries.

Rooney Holdings, rather than ratepayers, should have to pay for the extra road-repair costs that would be required, Timaru District Council's land transport manager Andrew Dixon said.

Heavy traffic would adversely affect the pavement, causing increased maintenance, earlier renewal requirements and ultimately increased costs.

Modelling done using the high extraction rate of 250 tonnes an hour would require an extra 30 per cent to 50 per cent in expenditure, with much of the higher cost being renewal of the road pavement.

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