Over the period 1975 – 1996, the number of private vehicles on the roads nationally has increased rapidly at the expense of public transport (1) and other alternatives such as walking and cycling. Lower cost, imported diesel fuelled vehicles have increased in popularity and can emit relatively high levels of particulate and cancer causing agents. Collectively, increased traffic volumes and changes in fuel use can result in adverse effects on amenity values. Noise, community separation by roads and pollution have also become worse over the 1975 – 1996 period.

Key Issues

Key issues regarding transportation in the Matamata-Piako District are:

• The urban areas are relatively free of significant parking, loading and vehicle access problems. Traffic safety along the State Highways and arterial routes is of concern.
• Traffic generates adverse effects particularly noise on State Highways and collector roads. In some locations, roads with high vehicle counts can affect the amenity values and function of the adjacent environment detrimentally.
• Reliance on the motor vehicle generates adverse amenity, environmental and some social effects. Development of alternative passive transportation modes, particularly cycling will have environmental and socio-economic benefits. Council wishes to encourage cycle paths throughout the District as an alternative means of transportation particularly in urban areas.

Incompatible Activities

The RMA requires Council to manage the effects of activities rather than attempt to control activities by description, definition or in their own right. If activities have minor effects and are generally compatible, there is no justification for preventing such activities from locating together.

Objectives and Visions

• To manage activities in a manner that gives certainty to the public as to the potential location and effects of activities
• To implement effective separation between incompatible activities

Pressures

In some cases however, no amount of mitigation will be sufficient to reduce the incompatibility between certain activities. For example, the heavy traffic volumes and building scale and character of industrial sites is unlikely to be compatible with a residential environment, and the effects of heavy traffic cannot be mitigated without seriously undermining the viability of industrial use. In these circumstances, activity separation by zoning can be justified.