So, you’ve decided to build an arena! You’ve done your homework on the best surface and design to best suit you and your horse’s needs – but what other things should you consider? Do arenas have environmental impacts that need to be managed?
First off, having a well-designed arena to ride on – rather than your paddocks – a provides positive environmental impact to your property. Riding in a paddock will cause compaction, and over time damage the soil structure. This will result in poor grass growth and affect the drainage. Over time, you will probably find that after heavy rain the area will take longer to dry out than it did before.
So, what things should you be considering? One of the first things you should do is contact your district or city council, and see if there are any rules in the district plan in regard to arenas. For example, the Waikato District Council has a rule that you cannot move more than 500m3 of soil in the Landscape Policy Area, or 1000m3 in all other rural areas, within a site in a single calendar year. As a full-sized dressage arena is 1200m2, in the Waikato District you will need a discretionary resource consent. Note that other district councils will have their own rules, which may or may not affect the construction of an arena.
If you do need a consent, you will not legally be able to construct your arena until you have it. Depending on council processes, this will take a minimum of four weeks – longer if the application is complex.
A good arena contractor should be aware of the council requirements in your area, and many will get the required consent on your behalf as part of their service, or at least, know who can assist you with a consent application.
The cost of getting a consent will need to be factored into your budget. It could be between $1500 and $5000, depending on the complexity of the application. There will be further costs if you get someone to prepare the application for you.
The issues that councils will focus on are: drainage, to the extent of knowing where the water from the arena surface goes and what contaminants it contains; removal of the soil resource (topsoil) and subsequent loss of productive capacity; and amenity effects – in the case of an arena these will include dust and visual impact.
Drainage
Nobody will disagree that good drainage of an arena is critical, and getting water off after the rain is important to its usability. From an environmental perspective, the key question is: where is the water going? Ideally, you don’t want water running off at all, as it will take sediment with it – this is considered a contaminant to waterways, not to mention the sediment is actually your very expensive arena surface! Ideally, surface water should drain through your arena substrate which then filters any sediment from the rainwater.
The next issue is establishing where the drainage from your arena actually goes. Into a nearby drain will generally be fine; if it has filtered through the substrate there should be few contaminants. From an environmental perspective, into a neighbouring paddock should be okay too, as long as it doesn’t create overland flow to the nearest water source. However, this could make a wet paddock wetter. If this is the case, it would be a good idea not to put stock in the area during wet periods to prevent pugging and compaction issues arising.
Removal of topsoil
The removal of topsoil is inevitable for arena construction. There is increasing concern in New Zealand about the loss of the productive capacity of the soil resource, primarily due to urban sprawl. For example, this is happening around Pukekohe on the southern edge of Auckland – a critical food growing region for New Zealand.
Councils are increasingly regulating to prevent the loss of the soil resource, particularly in rural areas close to urban centres – this is often where equestrian lifestyle blocks are. However, the counter-argument is that by constructing an arena you are protecting the soil resource on the balance of the property, by preventing overuse and compaction.
Amenity affects
Amenity effects with respect to resource management in New Zealand are described as: “those natural or physical qualities and characteristics of an area that contribute to people’s appreciation of its pleasantness, aesthetic coherence, and cultural and recreational attributes” (section 2 RMA). They include things like noise, odour, dust, glare and landscape effects. Generally, amenity effects are considered as to how they impact on neighbours. Sometimes, the wider public are impacted by amenity effects, but this is generally for landscape effects such as the forestry clearance from hillsides, which can be seen from a distance.
Amenity effects for an arena that may need to be considered are dust, glare and possibly also visual aspects.
Dust: Many arena surfaces are dusty, particularly those with a sand component. Riding on a dusty surface isn’t pleasant for you, not to mention has a negative impact on horse health. But from a council point of view, your neighbours will not be best pleased getting dust all over their washing, or all over themselves while they are sitting outside having a barbecue. This doesn’t do a lot for neighbourly relations and would be a legitimate basis for a complaint to council. Ways to minimise dust are considering the arena surface composition, having some way to water the arena in summer, or – if only mitigating the effects on neighbours – consider where you are siting your arena in relation to the neighbours, taking into account the prevailing wind. Another way to prevent dust heading to the neighbours is to plant a shelter screen along the boundary.
Glare: Dressage riders are likely to want to put in mirrors. If you have close neighbours, you may need to consider the positioning of your mirrors and the potential for glare. Glare is an amenity issue and many district councils will have rules regards the effects of glare. Glare also needs to be considered if you are close to a road – you don’t want to be the cause of an accident due to sun strike caused by your mirrors. If there is the potential for glare from your mirrors, this can be mitigated by the strategic planting of trees or a shelter belt.
Amenity landscape: For most of us riders, the view of a beautifully groomed arena is our idea of a perfect landscape. However, there are others (possibly your neighbours) who will see it as a horrible scar in lovely green paddocks. While it is likely there won’t be any landscape rules specifically for arenas, if you need a consent you are likely to also need to get sign-off from your immediate neighbours on your project, and this is where landscape effects will come into play if the neighbour doesn’t want to look at your arena all day. This has the potential to occur where you are on a small lifestyle block with few siting options and numerous neighbours, particularly neighbours who are more urban that rural.
Again, investing in strategic landscape planting can soften the effect of the arena, and hopefully improve your neighbour’s view.
To conclude, I consider a well-constructed arena will generally provide positive environmental outcomes, but it is worth considering and addressing the impacts on others.
Top Tips
- Check with your district council for any rules that may impact on your arena construction
- Consider where your drainage water may go and potential effects it may create.
- The siting of your arena is important in regards to how it may impact on your neighbours
- Good landscape planting is an investment that will mitigate many of the amenity effects that could impact your neighbours.
This article was first published in the July 2020 issue of NZ Horse & Pony magazine
