Can residential development result in better outcomes with reduced adverse amenity and visual effects when considered against the existing environment ?
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LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AOTEAROA
Positive Effects
Text by Dr Joan Forrett Partner , Harkness Henry Lawyers Images by Mansergh Graham Landscape Architects
Can residential development result in better outcomes with reduced adverse amenity and visual effects when considered against the existing environment ?
What is the ‘ Existing Environment ’? One area that seems to cause planning confusion is the assessment of an activity against the existing environment . This is an area of planning law that tends to overlap with the discretionary assessment of ‘ permitted baseline ’ however the two concepts are separate .
In simple terms , existing environment describes what is lawfully happening on the subject site at present , including consented activities , and the permitted baseline represents those activities that might be permitted on the subject site in future according to the permitted activity rules and performance standards applying .
We are presently assisting a client with a subdivision consent for a 165 residential lot that will supersede a previously consented ( non-complying ) 130-lot development on the same site . The original development , which was consented in 2015 , largely worked
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with 1.4m above