13. Use of the Coastal Environment Volume One [D] Policy 13.5.1 – Identify areas where residential activity can take place. Areas determined as appropriate for residential activity are zoned as Coastal Living Zones. The Coastal Living Zone recognises the need and demand that exists for residential activity in Marlborough’s coastal environment and applies to areas where development already occurs but which maintain a high level of amenity associated with the coast. These areas, zoned as Sounds Residential in the former Marlborough Sounds Resource Management Plan, have been identified as having an ability to absorb further low density, mainly rural residential development, without detriment to overall coastal character. Additionally, areas at Rarangi formerly zoned as Township Residential and Rural Residential have also been zoned as Coastal Living. [D] Policy 13.5.2 – Residential activity and subdivision for residential purposes should take place within land that has been zoned Coastal Living, in order to: (a) protect recreational and coastal amenity values; (b) avoid sprawling or sporadic patterns of residential development; and (c) protect landscape, natural character and indigenous biodiversity values. It is important that limitations are placed on where residential activity can take place within Marlborough’s coastal environment. If unrestricted development were allowed, the very values that make the coastal environment special would be threatened, particularly within the Marlborough Sounds. The policy therefore is important in identifying the appropriate locations for residential activity, are those provided through the resource of the Coastal Living Zone in conjunction with the enabling provision of Policy 13.5.5. This approach helps to give effect to the policies of the NZCPS, as well as achieving the overriding objective for the Marlborough Sounds in Chapter 4 - Use of Natural and Physical Resources of the MEP, in which the ‘visual, ecological and physical qualities that contribute to the character of the Marlborough Sounds’ is maintained and enhanced. The policy directs that residential activity and subdivision for residential purposes ‘shou ld’ occur within the Coastal Living Zone, though this is not absolute. This is because there may be occasions where through restoration works, enhancement of values or offsetting adverse effects, positive environmental outcomes can be achieved. Regard must be had to the other policies of the MEP (especially those regarding natural character, landscape, public access and biodiversity) to determine whether this is a relevant matter for consideration. [D] Policy 13.5.3 – Recognise there is an existing stock of land within the coastal environment that could be developed for residential activity to meet the needs of the community. There are many areas within the Coastal Living Zone and the Coastal Environment Zone that could be developed for residential activity. Areas zoned as Coastal Living include areas zoned as Sounds Residential in the former Marlborough Sounds Resource Management Plan and areas of Township Residential and Rural Residential in the Rarangi area of the former Wairau/Awatere Resource Management Plan. There is capacity within these zoned areas for further residential activity to occur. Additionally, there are allotments within the Coastal Environment Zone that do not currently have a dwelling on them but where residential activity could take place, subject to meeting standards. [D] Policy 13.5.4 – Avoid expansion of residential activity in Rarangi beyond those areas already zoned for this purpose, due to uncertainty over tsunami risk, the fragile local ecology and insufficient infrastructure to support expansion. In considering areas for urban expansion, the Council has assessed the potential for Rarangi to accommodate further growth. The outcome of the assessment was that there is uncertainty 13 – 14