Contact Energy is attempting to fast-track the process to build a large-scale wind farm boasting about 50 turbines and a maximum wattage of 300MW on Slopedown Hill in Eastern Southland.
For such a construction, companies are required to make an LVA, or land visual assessment, to assess the potential disruption to the land from a visual and cultural perspective.
The LVA was handled by architecture and design company Isthmus. It said there would be a low to low-moderate adverse landscape effect, meaning the wind turbines would have a small amount of disruption to the landscape's aesthetics.
However, landscape architect Anne Steven, who was engaged by the Environmental Protection Authority to review the LVA, questioned the findings.
She said this was due a lack of thorough process for the multiple factors that define a landscape’s visual value.
"While the Isthmus LVA has broadly followed an appropriate methodology, there are too many omissions and insufficient breadth and depth of landscape to credibly support overall findings of low to low-moderate adverse landscape effect," her report said.
She also said it did not note the visual damage to the natural aesthetic value of the land.
"In particular, it does not address the loss of distinctive, prominent, natural and very open skyline/backdrop, a recognised scenic/amenity value in the 1997 regional landscape study."
In her review, she said the report did not consider the cultural significance of the land, the assessment of the effect on recreational users of the land and lacked an assessment of the reversibility of the effects on the landscape visuals or the residual effects.
There was also no mention of the impact on the Pawakataka — Slopedown — which she said undermined the credibility of the report regarding effects on spiritual, cultural and social associations, or protection of significant indigenous vegetation and habitats for the flora and fauna of the region.
Contact Energy said it was confident in the assessment of landscape and visual effects by Isthmus, and the landscaping firm would be addressing the matters raised in the peer review to the consulting panel.
