Description: Save the Maitai, help us stop the proposed subdivision. Donate, Sign the Petition and spread the word, read on other ways you can help!
Save the Maitai campaigners, including 13,000 supporters who signed a petition to retain the existing rural zoning, have been campaigning since 2020 to save Nelson’s beloved Maitai Valley. It is the city’s most popular rural recreation area and a proposed massive new suburb (about the size of 300 rugby fields) in the valley would seriously degrade the Maitai and surr ounding areas.
In December 2021, over 700 written submissions were sent to a Resource Management Act (RMA) hearing, almost all opposing the proposed subdivision. The campaign culminated in July 2022 when many people spoke with the RMA commissioners at the hearing . Thank you to everyone who spoke or submitted. Together we made a very strong case to leave the valley rural and peaceful.
One of the big concerns was flooding and the recent floods (August 2022) have shown these concerns to be very real. The area planned for lower-value homes flooded, other land designated for housing slumped and more significantly, houses downstream in Nile Street were inundated. Additional floodwater that would come from the subdivision due to increased impermeable surfaces (roofs and roads) means this proposal must not go ahead.