Shelly Bay
Shelly Bay is a bay on the Miramar Peninsula of Wellington, New Zealand. Most of the land was owned by the New Zealand Defence Force owned for 124 years until 2009. Today it is the site of a controversial planned residential development which, as of July 2020, is the subject of three ongoing court cases and a pending city council vote.
Geography
Shelly Bay is on the west of the Mirimar Peninsular, north of its isthmus, and is about 8 km by road from Wellington's city centre. The land at the bay is part of the Wellington suburb of Maupuia and includes some reclaimed land, with nearby hillsides excavated to provide fill.According to the head of Victoria University of Wellington's Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences department, the land at Shelly Bay is at risk from coastal flooding due to sea level rises. In 2019, he predicted within forty years, damage previously seen once every 100 years would occur once every three or four years. He considered that a sea wall was feasible but that protecting the road around the coast would be problematic.
According to Land Information New Zealand, the name "Shelly Bay" is not official; LINZ does not provide the origin of the name.
History
Māori history and European land purchase
In the 1820s and 1830s, a collection of peoples from multiple Māori iwi, including Te Āti Awa, Taranaki, Ngāti Ruanui, and Ngāti Tama, migrated to the region. This group became known as Taranaki Whānui ki te Upoko o te Ika. The village sited at the northern end of the bay was named Maru-Kai-Kuru.In 1839 the bay was bought by the New Zealand Company along with most of Wellington. The deed of purchase would later be described as "seriously" flawed. It was in English only and had no map to define boundaries.
Defence use and ownership
In 1885, the bay became a site for an anti-submarine mining base, due to fears of a Russian attack. The Submarine Mining Depot Barracks were constructed in 1887. The base was the site of an explosion in 1891 which killed one person. An inquest was held and its jury found there was not sufficient direct evidence for them to say what caused the explosion. In 1907 the land was transferred to the Royal New Zealand Navy.In 1942, reclamation of land began and the area became a naval station called HMNZS Cook. In 1946 ownership was transferred to the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and renamed Shelly Bay Air Force Base, to accommodate a catering unit and up to 300 staff. The airforce base closed in 1995 and the New Zealand Defence Force put the land up for disposal. A naval museum was on the site but this was shut in 2008.
Treaty of Waitangi settlement
In 2003, the Waitangi Tribunal ruled that iwi were owed compensation over Shelly Bay. On 14 February 2009 4.5 hectares of land was handed over to the iwi Taranaki Whānui ki te Upoko o te Ika who bought the land as part of a $25 million Treaty of Waitangi settlement. The settlement related to wrongdoings in and arising from the 1839 land purchase. The Crown apologised over this sale, saying the deed was flawed and promises were never kept. The Crown failed to set aside one-tenth of the land for Māori as required by the terms, took land for public purposes without compensation, and locked up remaining Māori land in perpetual leases. The settlement included the right to buy the Shelly Bay property and the iwi chose to do so at a cost of at least $13.3 million.Current use
Buildings previously part of the defence bases have had little or no maintenance since the base ceased operations. The wharf itself has almost rotted away. A number of artists rent studio spaces in the area. The area also features the Chocolate Fish cafe; former mayor Kerry Prendergast described the cafe as "iconic" and it became renowned after actors and crew from the Lord of the Rings trilogy frequented it.Some of the 2005 film King Kong was filmed in Shelly Bay, including construction of the giant wall that separates Kong from the rest of Skull Island. Shelly Bay is a short drive from the Mirimar studios used for filming the movie.
Development of the area
Multiple uses for the land of Shelly Bay have been proposed since the closure of the defence base, including a casino and a movie museum, the latter being proposed by director Peter Jackson. Development of the area has been controversial, with news site Stuff reporting that it has written about 400 articles on Shelly Bay between 2011 and 2019.Ian Cassels, director of the property development company The Wellington Company, has been planning a $500 million development for the land since 2014 but the project has faced legal, bureaucratic, and other barriers.
Resource consent
A resource consent was first granted by Wellington City Council in 2017 but it was legally challenged by the lobby group Enterprise Mirimar. A 2018 Court of Appeal decision quashed that resource consent, saying that the Council wrongly interpreted law when it decided to grant it. Following the court decision, there was a reconsideration of the consent process, conducted by independent commissioners, which was completed in October 2019. These commissioners approved a new resource consent. This consent allows for more intensive housing than Wellington's district plan would ordinarily allow. Enterprise Mirimar continues to oppose the resource consent.Sale of iwi-owned land
To develop the area, Cassels has purchased land from the Taranaki Whānui iwi. Much of the land, officially owned by an entity called Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust, was sold in June 2017 for $2 million, less than the iwi had paid for it. Sale of all the land had initially been voted on, and members of the Taranaki Whānui iwi voted against the sale, but the sale of a portion of the land was a smaller matter and did not require a vote. Mau Whenua, a group of Taranaki Whānui members, said the sale neither had the will nor mandate of iwi members and pledged to get the land back. PNBST said in a newsletter that it had to make the deal to survive as it was cash-strapped.A deal to sell the remaining land for $10 million was made by PNBST, also in 2019. Mau Whenua members obtained a caveat on a sale in July 2019, which prevents a sale unless it is withdrawn, removed by the High Court, or expires. However, PNBST had already made the deal to sell the land prior to the caveat, and Cassels stated he was confident he could get the High Court to remove the caveat. Opponents of the sale say there was no discussion of the sale before the deal was made. The caveat lapsed in December 2019 and the currently listed owner of this parcel of land is a company owned by Cassels and his partner.
In December 2019 PNBST announced by a newsletter to Taranaki Whānui members that it was aiming to get back into the Shelly Bay development. The newsletter stated that PNBST is in talks with Cassels' company to buy land at Shelly Bay from the company. The land that PNBST is looking to buy is currently owned by Wellington City Council so would require the Council to go ahead with plans to sell to Cassels before Cassels could sell it to PNBST.
Proposed sale of Council-owned land
The proposed development would also require Wellington City Council to sell and lease some land to the developers. Councillors had voted in favour of the sales and leases in September 2017 and granted Council chief executive the power to do so, but after the issues with the resource consent and disputes over whether councillors had all the correct information, the chief executive Kieth Lavery refused to make the transaction and indicated in 2019 that the matter would likely go to a new vote.The Shelly Bay sale became an election issue in the October 2019 Wellington local elections, and most candidates had a position on the development. Prior to the election most councillors supported the development, but after the election, most of the current councillors oppose it. The mayoral election at the same time also saw Wellington mayor Justin Lester, who supported the proposal, replaced by Andy Foster, who as a councillor opposed it for several years.
Other objections
The development has seen opposition from other parties. Director Peter Jackson opposes the development, describing it as a "precious green space" threatened by "Soviet-era apartments". He has threatened legal action over the issue.The lobby group Enterprise Mirimar cite concerns such as traffic safety and congestion in their opposition. Mayor Andy Foster has said that the council needs to investigate road capacity and safety associated with the project. Wellington City Council has previously voted to cap its share of infrastructure for the development at $10m.