There is now some certainty around the future face of Waikawa Bay after the Plan Change 21 Environment Court Appeal was resolved by agreement between Port Marlborough, Te Atiawa, Marlborough District Council and others. A great deal of effort has been put in by many people to ensure that all voices have been heard, and that the results are sustainable.

Key outcomes from Plan Change 21 and associtated processes are:

1. Mooring Management Areas will be established by Council for moorings in the inner bay, instead of these moorings needing individual resource consents (timing for this is with Council);
2. A new area of Marina Zone will be created to the northwest of the existing Waikawa Marina Trust berths, adjacent to the coastline of The Snout;
3. The existing block of undeveloped Marina Zone area immediately east of the Trust breakwater and north of the launching ramp breakwater will become a Mooring Management Area for the existing moorings, and Marina zoning will be removed.
4. Some of the resource management plan provisions for the Marina Zone will be updated to make it more straight-forward to operate the marina;
5. The resource management plan will be amended to make it very difficult for any future marina development to occur in Waikawa Bay, outside of the Marina Zone.

Any new marina in the North West will require resource consent, and no physical development is likely for some years. There are some remaining  consent appeal issues to be resolved around a small number of existing swing moorings; these will be able to be sorted out now that the main Plan Change outcome is known. If anyone has any questions about any of this, contact the Marina Services Team in the first instance.