Paekakariki Hill Road, on the Kapiti Coast, is one of New Zealand’s most beautiful coastal drives. So, it’s no surprise that development and earthworks are restricted within certain areas, in order to preserve the amenity of the outstanding landscape.

Boffa Miskell landscape planners and technical services specialists assisted their client, a residential developer, in gaining resource consent for an 8-lot hamlet by demonstrating that building on the proposed sites would not be visible from Paekakariki, or from the adjoining dwellings in the valley behind.

During preparation of the preliminary design for resource consent application, GIS (geographic information system) software was used to better evaluate the likely visibility of the proposed structures from surrounding areas.

To do this, a series of points (representing the corners of the eight proposed building platforms) were placed on a computer-generated terrain model. Viewshed Analysis was run for each, to determine the Zone of Theoretical Invisibility.

The initial ZTV immediately determined that a number of the proposed structures were likely to be partially or wholly visible for some considerable distance, including from the township of Paekakariki. So the challenge was set - where would the dwellings need to be placed so they would be largely invisible to the surrounding areas?

To determine this, a 3D digital model of each building envelope was created, and then moved interactively - both horizontally and vertically – on each of the eight parcels, until it slipped below the invisibility cloak, whilst still meeting the earthworks requirements.

Boffa Miskell planners, and their client, presented the work to Council planners and landscape architects to show them that development could successfully move forward within the prescribed limits; and Council granted a non-notified consent.

Find out more at boffamiskell.co.nz.