Hawke’s Bay currently has six applications under the Fast-track Approvals Act sitting at the Ministry for the Environment.

The highest profile and most contentious of these involve resurrecting the previously failed Ruataniwha Dam scheme in Central Hawke’s Bay and the proposal for a major multi-purpose residential, commercial & business, recreational, ecological development involving Napier’s 1,300 hectares Ahuriri Station. 

In these two instances, proponents are still getting their acts together, with the Dam 2 proponents commissioning a new multi-million dollar feasibility study paid for equally by the project’s advocates and the Government.

While these percolate, action has been taken on the Arataki Extension housing development application, which would see 150-200 homes on lots averaging 516m² built on land adjoining the present Arataki neighbourhood in Havelock North.

The project applicant is CDL Land NZ, the same company developing the massive property off Middle Road in Havelock North.

A three-person expert panel has been appointed and commenced work on 1 October to consider the application as well as submissions invited from officially designated parties (these are stipulated by the panel). Those comments were due 15 October and the panel has been instructed to make its decision by 20 February 2026.

The project is endorsed by HDC and is ‘approved’ by the new Napier-Hastings Future Development Strategy.

The key issues surrounding this development and application involve water – how stormwater will be managed and how drinking water will be supplied. These are addressed by the applicant in its Assessment of Environmental Effects (AAE), as required under the RMA.

Of particular interest is sourcing drinking water. There are no existing extraction consents for the land involved, and in fact this is the reason the land is deemed unsuitable for horticulture development.

The closest drinking water supply bore presently is the last remaining operative bore on Brookvale Road (which oddly is listed as having an expiry date of 2018). For those with short memories, it was the Brookvale Road bores that were responsible for Havelock North’s deadly campylobacter disaster. According to the AAE: “Currently the one operating augmenting Brookfield bore is subject to a high degree of water treatment including UV as well as chlorine and can be used to supplement the primary supply if needed.”

This one remaining bore is scheduled to be decommissioned, with future drinking water to be supplied by a new pipeline delivering from Hastings’ Eastbourne bores.

Anyone interested in tracking this process can follow it and find supporting materials here. 

But you can’t participate unless specifically invited.

Indeed, choking off pesky public participation is a main purpose of the original Fast-track Act. But this week, the Government decided that even more choking was required and introduced a new bill that would further curtail the ability of fast-track panels to seek wider input, as well as shortening mandated decision windows unrealistically and allowing applicants to complain about the ‘suitability’ of panel members, and allowing the Minister to approve ‘modifications’ to projects after they are referred to a panel.

The Environmental Defence Society argues: “That could encourage applicants to submit smaller, more palatable proposals initially, and then expand them later on, without having to go through the same hurdles as the initial referral process.”

As the normally calm and moderate EDS says: “The Government has introduced the Fast-track Approvals Amendment Bill, doubling down on its war on nature.”