No need to consult residents on lights
A controversial new intersection connecting to Waimea Rd will go ahead without public consultation, after an attempt to prevent it failed.
Nelson City Council was briefed yesterday, after councillor Mel Courtney tried to have the project’s resource consent revoked.
Mayor Rachel Reese denied Courtney’s notice of motion, as she said it went beyond his powers as an elected council member under the Resource Management Act.
The section under development originally had legal access via Beatson Rd but this was determined to be too steep and not to preserve the transport corridor. Therefore, in 2000, a notified consent was put up for public consultation for a new road connecting Princes Drive to Waimea Rd.
Council transport engineering adviser Sue McAuley said traffic lights weren’t included in the design until 2015 – 15 years after the intersection was first consented. In 2000, it was planned to be a simple give-way intersection. The development was for residential housing.
Since then, it has changed hands and designs, becoming the retirement and lifestyle village development now being constructed by Qestral Corp. Under its resource consent, the intersection will be paid for by Qestral.
Council strategy and development group manager Clare Barton said the retirement village would have ‘‘no more than minor’’ impact on traffic at the intersection.
Council acting group manager of infrastructure Margaret Parfitt said: ‘‘Because it’s a retirement village, it may be less [traffic] than what it would have been.’’
Since the 2000 notified consent, it was determined that the intersection would be unsafe as an uncontrolled intersection, and designs were put forward for a roundabout or a traffic lightcontrolled intersection.
The roundabout idea was discarded because it would encroach two properties on Waimea Rd, take up space in Railway Reserve, and interfere with stormwater drainage for the development.
The design settled upon is traffic lights, with southbound traffic continuing unimpeded but northbound traffic into the city stopping when drivers are turning into or out of the Princes Drive extension.
The intersection has been designed for a 50kmh speed limit – down from the 70kmh limit – which is where Courtney said ‘‘the anxiety comes in’’.
‘‘The public are saying ‘we know the road is going down to 50kmh, because we can’t go rushing up to a set of traffic lights at 70kmh’. So we’re going to the public now but we didn’t before.’’