Request for the 2016 Johnsonville Mall Resource Consent and supporting documents

Tony Randle made this Official Information request to Wellington City Council

The request was successful.

From: Tony Randle

Dear Wellington City Council,

Todays DomPost included an announcement that the owners of the Johnsonville Mall have submitted a revised resource consent to action a $150 million upgrade (Link: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/84688796...).

I am a member of the Johnsonville Community Association ... the residents group for Johnsonville. We are interested in this revised proposal having been actively involved in the previous resource consent. We also note with concern that the WCC has only 20 days within which to consider this resource consent application hence our information request be considered as urgent.

1) Can the WCC please urgently provide a copy of the 2016 Resource Consent application for the Johnsonville Mall upgrade ?

2) Can the WCC please urgently provide a copy of any supporting documentation from the developer in support of the 2016 Resource Consent application for the Johnsonville Mall upgrade ?

3) Can the WCC please urgently provide a copy of any internal WCC reports, memos or meeting notes related to the 2016 Resource Consent application for the Johnsonville Mall upgrade including documentation on the WCC consideration of any consent condition differences compared to the previous resource consent ?

If this information is held in electronic form, it is preferred that the information be provided in it's complete and original format. It is also preferred that correspondence on this information request be via the FYI web site.

Yours faithfully,

Tony Randle

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From: BUS: IRO
Wellington City Council

Thank you for your email, sent to the Issues Resolution Office at Wellington City Council.

This email address is monitored daily. Your email will be assessed and actioned in due course.

We appreciate your patience.

Wellington City Council Issues Resolution Office.

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From: Chris Brown
Wellington City Council

Hello Tony,

Thank you for the request, as below.

The information has been collated and is being passed over to IRO tomorrow.

As there is a substantial amount, too much to send via FYI, I will post a cd to you at the usual address.

Kind regards

Chris
Chris Brown | Issues Resolution Officer | Governance and Assurance | Wellington City Council
P 04 801 3479
E [email address] | W Wellington.govt.nz | |

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From: Tony Randle

Dear Chris Brown,

I have now received the CD that is the substantive response from the WCC for information on the 2016 Resource Consent Application by Stride to the WCC for permission to rebuild the Johnsonville Mall. This CD contains just two documents:
* The Resource Consent Application from Stride
* Supplementary Architectural design plans from Stride

A key element of my information request was as follows:
"3) Can the WCC please urgently provide a copy of any internal WCC reports, memos or meeting notes related to the 2016 Resource Consent application for the Johnsonville Mall upgrade including documentation on the WCC consideration of any consent condition differences compared to the previous resource consent ?"

Your letter that accompanying the CD included the following statement:
"I spoke with the Council consent team regarding question 3, above, and was advised that all the relevant information is on the disc."

Having reviewed the two documents provided on the CD, it clear that the WCC must hold a number of other documents in relation to the 2016 Johnsonville Mall application by Stride but has failed to provide copies of these on the CD.

Below are just some of the many examples from the Resource Consent Application of statements that refer to WCC meetings and agreements where meeting notes and/or reports must have been created by the WCC.

"The Application has undertaken a significant amount of consultation with the City Council as a road and transportation authority. This has resulted in the mutually agreeable works and facilities identified in Section 2.3 of this AEE that the Applicant has incorporated into its Shopping Centre proposal.
Written approval of the City Council as owner of Gothic Street and Hawea Street West is in Appendix 3.”
– Refer Section 2.4

“The Applicant’s traffic engineer (Mark Georgeson of TDG Ltd) met with Soon Tec Kong and other officers on Tuesday 9 August 2016 to clarify and discuss the transportation feedback and how this could be effectively addressed in the TDG’s Transportation Impact Assessment (TIA) that has now been finalised and is contained in Appendix 9.
This TIA, together with the application plan in Appendix 2, addresses as far as practicable the feedback given by Soon Tec Kong”.”
– Refer Section 2.4

“The Applicant has consulted Council’s urban design and planning officers at the early stages of the design development as encouraged by the Centres provisions (p6/15). A series of meetings and briefings were held which culminated in the written feedback contained in Appendix 4.”
– Refer Section 4.1.4

“The stopping of Gothic Street and Hawea Street West is proposed by the City Council as owner ...”
– Refer Section 4.1.6

“The existing bus routes through the site and the associated bus stops will be relocated onto Moorefield Road in a manner consistent with WCC’s planned coordination between bus, rail and pedestrian provisions at this Moorefield Road location. Consultation has been undertaken with WCC regarding the bus stop relocation, and the new dual stops on either side of Moorefield Road shown in the application reflect the agreed positions.”
– Appendix 9 Traffic Assessment Section 4

It is clear that the WCC has engaged in a number of meetings and agreed with the application on a number of important issues in relation to the proposed redeveloped Johnsonville Mall. However there are no WCC meeting notes or reports have been provided by the WCC on these meetings and agreements even though both meeting notes and reports were requested.

Can I ask the WCC to please provide the requested information outlined under 3) and also confirm when I may expect to receive it ?

Finally, I note that the “Written approval of the City Council as owner of Gothic Street and Hawea Street West is in Appendix 3.” This appendix is also missing from the information provided.

Yours sincerely,

Tony Randle

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From: Tony Randle

Dear Chris Brown,

As outlined in the previous follow-up replay, the initial WCC response, while helpful, is clearly incomplete.

The LGOIMA timeframe for the WCC to provide all the requested information now over and the complete substantive response is now over-due. On behalf of the Johnsonville Community Association, can you please outline when the WCC will provide the rest of the requested information ?

Yours sincerely,

Tony Randle

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From: Chris Brown
Wellington City Council

Hello Tony,

I'm putting a disc with the further information supplied by the Resource Consents team in the mail now.

Kind regards

Chris

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Tony Randle left an annotation ()

A response email following was also received from WCC. Below is a copy with officer names removed:
From: <The Manager, City Planning & Design>
Date: 4 November 2016 at 12:14
Subject: RE: Johnsonville Community Association concerns with Mall Resource Consent Notification
To: <Tony Randle>

Dear Tony,

It is my understanding that <a council officer> in Transport is handling the request about the bus exchange as the resource consent team have not been party to any of these conversations.

In terms of the pre-application meeting request information, we are currently putting together the emails and file notes that lead to the final pre application feedback document which JCA currently have. A number of meetings were also had with the applicant over the design. Only brief comments were provided by Council officers however as plans had not been circulated prior and limited input could be provided.

The application (SR368830) is currently on suspend awaiting further information. A notification determination report is yet to be written as further information is needed to assist with the assessment of the application. Once this report has been issued a copy of the decision will be forwarded through to JCA.

Regards

<The Manager>
City Planning & Design | Wellington City Council

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