District plan delay for growth, new frameworks

CENTRAL OTAGO’S huge growth has contributed to a delay of the review of the region’s district plan, but more individual plan changes could be on the way.

Central Otago District Council councillors this week adopted a recommendation from council planning and environment executive manager Louise van der Voort to delay the review, allowing the council to focus on particular areas of growth in the district and also providing time to comply with new national frameworks.

The council’s district plan was prepared during the 1990s, became operative in 2008 and was required to be reviewed every 10 years, Ms van der Voort said.

The council had been working on a review since 2012 and done significant public consultation, Ms van der Voort said.

A draft for further engagement was meant to be ready by late this year, but the ‘‘significant increase’’ in resource consent activity during 2017 meant the council’s planner had limited time to spend on the review, so timeframes were becoming diffi cult to achieve, Ms van der Voort said.

As well, the Government had this year released the first set of 18 new mandatory National Planning Standards, which would also require the development of an ‘‘eplan’’, linking plan provisions to other planning documents.

The Government was also developing a National Policy Statement on biodiversity.

Both may result in the need for a further review and rewrite of significant parts of the district plan, at significant cost to the CODC, so it was better to delay the review, Ms van der Voort said.

She said the most important thing for now was to address growth issues in Central Otago.

At present the council had private plan change requests for rezoning of residential and industrial land, particularly in the Cromwell Ward, and Clyde and Alexandra were also facing significant growth pressures, Ms van der Voort said.

She advised incorporating the results of the ‘‘Eye to the Future Cromwell Masterplan’’ into the current district plan through a plan change.

The council could also instigate other plan changes, or developers could request private plan changes for other areas, potentially outlining areas for development more quickly than the review of the district plan would have, she said.

She said other ‘‘masterplans’’ would be created elsewhere in Central Otago once Cromwell’s was completed. Clyde and Alexandra were likely to be next.