​

PRACTICE AREAS
Environment
Major Projects
Energy and Resource

Steve has wide-ranging experience in resource management and environmental litigation, and has made numerous appearances at council-level and Environment Court hearings and mediations. His experience includes: assisting with resource consent/plan change applications for a number of major energy, residential, retail, and infrastructure projects; and advising on resource management plans and plan changes, resource consents, designations, and environmental legislation (including legislative/policy reform).

Steve has also acted on numerous major environmental due diligence projects prior to company and property acquisitions; and has advised on Public Works Act acquisition and compensation issues, the Local Government Act, and the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act.

NOTABLE EXPERIENCE

• Successfully progressing the large-scale Mangawhai Central development through council hearings and several Environment Court appeals. The proposal includes a town centre/main street with a range of retail, commercial, and other services; a business area; and approximately 1,000 residential dwellings, including a retirement village

• Advising one of the country’s largest petroleum companies for several years on a range of environmental matters, including active involvement through council hearings and ongoing Environment Court appeals on the Proposed New Plymouth District Plan

• Preliminary advice to the applicant on a hyper-scale carbon-neutral datacentre proposal in the South Island

• Advising one of New Zealand’s largest renewable energy generators through a council RMA enforcement process, and a resource consent review process

• Advising Channel Terminal Services (operator of the 170km high-pressure liquid fuels pipeline from Marsden Point to Auckland) on a range of matters, including several third-party developments proximate to its pipeline

• Acting for a property developer in Beachlands (Auckland) over many years on a major multi-stage residential subdivision/development

• Assisting several clients on wind farms developments, including:

  • Tararua Wind Power (Mercury) for its Kaiwaikawe Wind Farm in Northland

  • Tilt Renewables for its recently-constructed Waipipi Wind Farm in South Taranaki

  • Acting for neighbours affected by a proposed wind farm in Dunedin. The proposal was successfully opposed, with the Environment Court declining consents

• Assisting Trustpower (now Manawa Energy) on an Environment Court water rights plan change in Otago, along with several other hydro-electric re-consenting projects and other matters

• Assisting Northport with resource consent applications for its proposed expansion, and a recent Environment Court appeal on noise issues

• Assisting the applicants for the Titanium Park Business Park expansion plan change at Hamilton Airport. The plan change was approved by the council and is subject to an appeal

• Advising Channel Infrastructure on a range of environmental matters, including its major coastal dredging project, regional re-consenting, and the environmental aspects of its corporate restructure associated with its transition from a refinery to an import terminal

• ​Providing mediation/facilitation services over several years to the Environmental Protection Authority and other clients