CODC submitting against change
THE Central Otago District Council is throwing its weight against a private plan change that would see a new town built opposite the Highlands corner near Cromwell — but not because councillors are officially against the proposal or submitting on behalf of all Cromwell residents.
Rather, the council submission will be on the basis that Plan Change 13 would preempt the present Cromwell Masterplan process.
And Cromwell residents are being reminded that, ‘‘like it or not’’, the council needs to follow process regarding planning applications, and it is ‘‘not as simple’’ as being able to oppose something if much of a community is against it.
Councillors at their full council meeting yesterday discussed a report that staff had offered to prepare about the issue to assist elected representatives.
The Cromwell Community Board, which had been discussing whether it should lodge a submission opposing Plan Change 13, had last week accepted the offer of the report, and decided the decision of whether to lodge a submission about Plan Change 13 would be best made by the full council.
Council planning and environment executive manager Louise van der Voort told councillors they were able to make a submission but, without a formal mandate from the community, could not say it represented an entire district.
Plan Change 13 has attracted 417 submissions, 410 of which are against it.
‘‘The submissions might reflect the community view, but you don’t know that for certain,’’ Ms van der Voort said.
She believed the CODC had never made a submission against a plan change before, chiefly because a regulatory authority needed to remain impartial; it was the council’s own hearings panel that considered many applications.
However, a panel of independent commissioners would hear the request for Plan Change 13, so councillors could make a submission in this case, Ms van der Voort said.
It still could not claim to repre sent the views of all Cromwell residents, but could be made on the basis that Plan Change 13 would preempt the outcome of the Cromwell Masterplan, which is being done to address growth in Cromwell and outline where new development should go.
But councillors needed to know that in the formal, ‘‘quasijudicial’’ setting of a hearings panel, the council’s submission would carry no more weight than any other single submission, Ms van der Voort said.
Cromwell councillor and Cromwell Community Board chairman Neil Gillespie said members of the public also needed to realise that.
He acknowledged the 410 opposing submissions probably did reflect the general feeling in Cromwell about Plan Change 13, but said that, whether people ‘‘liked it or not’’, councils had to follow complicated formal and legal processes.
The council and community board had all along urged people to make submissions about Plan Change 13 to be part of the process, Mr Gillespie and Ms van der Voort said.
Central Otago Mayor Tim Cadogan also warned people that signing public petitions about Plan Change 13 was ‘‘completely pointless’’, and would carry no weight in the formal hearing.
‘‘I hope that people don’t think [that by signing a petition] they have done their bit.
‘‘There is only one process regarding Plan Change 13, and that is the hearing.’’
A date for the hearing has not yet been set.