Just How Viable is the Tarras Airport Plan
Summer Newsroom
Jill Herron looks at the road ahead for the mysterious and seemingly unwanted airport in Tarras
Lifestyle blocks are continuing to sell around the site of a proposed international airport at Tarras, with newcomers arriving into a community impatient for clarity on the project.
Construction of this considerable chunk of infrastructure could begin in six years’ time, according to its proposers, Christchurch International Airport Ltd.
A three-year consenting process is due to start in 2024 for the jet-capable facility with a 2.2km runway, coinciding with sustainability and community consultation policies tightening across all levels of government.
No one yet knows how current trends like the move away from mass tourism, or these policy shifts being gradually translated into law, might affect Christchurch Airport’s efforts to get the idea off the ground.
The company, which is 75 percent owned by Christchurch City Council (CCC) through its subsidiary Christchurch City Holdings Ltd (CCHL) and 25 percent by the Government, quietly purchased 750ha of farmland just prior to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
It perceives a future gap in aviation infrastructure in Central Otago but accepts it will have to meet environmental expectations in order to fill it, Christchurch Airport’s Central Otago project director Michael Singleton says.
The company was aware of new lifestyle activity – namely a new 17-lot subdivision across the road from the site – but Singleton brushes off the potential for land use clashes.
“That investment highlights that others see Tarras will continue to be an attractive place for people to move to. All developments, including ours, need to follow the rules and go through independent legal processes to get the approvals they need to proceed.”
In February the Central Otago District Council (CODC) will hear the application for the upmarket housing and farm-share on Jollys Road, which would lie directly under one possible flight path and slightly to the right of the other.
CODC’s planning department confirmed that in assessing such applications no consideration of possible future applications is given with only the effects of the application in front of them being assessed.
Meanwhile, Otago Regional Council (ORC) general manager of strategy, policy and science, Gwyneth Elsum, says her council has two new “big policy works” currently underway – a regional policy statement being expedited for adoption in 2023 and a land and water regional plan to be publicly notified late that year.
“In general, and in keeping with the direction in national environmental standards and national policy statements, both documents will provide stricter environmental protections in some areas. Environmental protections will also be guided by the local community’s aspirations for their environment.”
She says it’s possible the policies could impact any new infrastructure development but it’s too early in the process to speculate further.
Christchurch Airport’s submission on the draft regional policy statement requested a condition seeking to avoid new infrastructure in areas with high ecological, cultural, heritage landscape and amenity values be deleted to allow an “appropriate consenting pathway” for necessary projects.
The company’s submission supported provisions for offsetting and compensation for unavoidable effects on indigenous biodiversity, stating that some aspects of the protections being proposed were “overly onerous”.
The submissions are not specific to the Tarras proposal but part of a general contribution to new policy for the region – a process Christchurch Airport takes part in “where our insight might be useful to decision-makers”, Singleton says.
If the proposal gets to the consenting stage, the ORC would be required to rule on water and discharge permits. The Central Otago District Council would deal with resource consents for land use, building consents, noise issues, any trade waste and food and liquor licensing, according to a CODC planning spokesperson.
The Christchurch City Council is keeping well informed about the project, councillor Sam MacDonald says.
He says there were no concerns over sustainability issues or any other issues raised at a recent meeting where a new guidance document – an ‘enduring statement of expectations’ – for the council’s various companies, including Christchurch Airport, was discussed.
The document included a new requirement for any land deals to be notified to the council prior to being finalised as well as communication on potential negative media attention or impacts on the council’s balance sheet or reputation.
“The Tarras project has been initiated and will be progressed by Christchurch Airport, which is an independent standalone commercial business operating at ‘arm’s length’ from the council.
“As a council we have previously been briefed on the project, which included an explanation of the airport company’s strategy, how the Tarras project fits within it, and how that strategy ultimately delivers a meaningful and sustainable dividend to CCHL and therefore to the council.”
Justification for the project is still hard to understand for many and that’s a problem, says Sustainable Tarras chairperson, Chris Goddard. Mass tourism was going out of fashion before Covid-19 arrived and predictions are that the impact of the virus on international travel will have a long tail.
The group was formed in response to the airport proposal but also planned to focus on community projects, he says.
General uncertainty is becoming less tolerable amongst a pandemic-weary population, and not knowing whether this large piece of infrastructure and everything that goes with it will be built or not, is taking its toll on many in the group’s 100-plus membership, Goddard says.
“Looking to 2022 we’d like to see the Christchurch Airport project team give some clarity on the proposal. Clarity beyond the statement that an airport in Tarras is a long-term vision. The community, Otago Regional Council, Central Otago District Council and wider New Zealand cannot make informed decisions for the future on key topics including climate change, tourism and Central Otago development without any of the basic details.”
Eighty-four percent of the residents who responded to a recent survey commissioned by the group opposed the idea, Goddard says. He worries that those who supported it as a way of growing the area might be disappointed by the realities in terms of the scale of change.
He is heartened, however, that the community as a whole, whether it opposes or supports the airport, are united on wanting an attractive, vibrant and sustainable Tarras.
Queenstown Airport’s CEO, Glen Sowry, says it’s high-value tourists the region now wants to attract, and while numbers are predicted to increase, capacity would be there to meet them.
“We are confident that Queenstown Airport will meet the needs of the region into the future with excellent domestic and Tasman connections which bring high value tourists and provide connectivity for our local community. An alternative airport at Tarras will be subject to both community and planning consent. If there is ultimately support for the proposal we remain very confident in the positioning of Queenstown Airport.”
Meanwhile, CIAL continues to focus on its principal task – to make money for their shareholders – but acknowledge that exactly what is in the Tarras proposal for Central Otago is yet to be documented.
“Part of our investigations involves detailed studies on the specific benefits of the project at a local and regional level. Like our other workstreams, we will release that information as our work progresses,” Singleton says.
Whatever that may bring to light, the decision on whether an international airport will be built in the valley or not will ultimately come down to district and regional government planners assessing whether Christchurch Airport’s applications fit whatever rules are applicable on the day.
