After six years' work and a spend of $8 million, the West Coast has a new District Plan, setting out how land can be used across the region. 

Council and iwi leaders who have been meeting for five days, going through rules recommended by independent Commissioners voted unanimously on Wednesday to approve the Tai o Poutini Plan (TTPP) .

The 26-chapter document is the first whole-of-region district plan in the country, combining those of Buller, Grey and Westland councils into one. 

TTPP committee chair, Rex Williams says the document is a game-changer. 

“Through the collaboration of the Coast councils and Poutini Ngai Tahu, the West Coast has become a national leader in integrated planning,” he said. 

The plan provided consistency and clarity for the public, streamlined planning rules and made it easier for people to understand. 

“The major benefits include rezoning so new housing can be built in our towns; new mining zones for long-term continuity of coal mining … and recognising the unique Poutini Ngai Tahu cultural heritage of the Coast,” Mr Williams said. 

Throughout the Plan project, TTPP committee members have grappled with planning laws that curbed their power to concoct the TTPP they really wanted. 

“It’s bittersweet, really, to get to this point after six years,” iwi rep Paul Madgwick said. 

Speaking after the historic final vote, the Runanga o Makaawhio Chair said councils and iwi had embarked on the TTPP journey with a lot of hope and a little excitement that they could craft something uniquely West Coast. 

“That was quickly knocked out of us as we realized the rules that were tumbling down upon us were all made by bureaucrats in Wellington, and we just had to toe the line.” 

From the start, the biggest sticking point in the TTPP has been the chapter on Ecology and Biodiversity, containing the RMA requirement for councils to identify Significant Natural Areas, to protect native bush and wetlands on private land. 

About 85 percent of the West Coast is public conservation and councils were hoping to avoid the SNA exercise, relying on signals from the government that it will relax the rules in its planned RMA reforms.

The revelation last week that the Commissioners were recommending all three councils identify their SNA’s by 2027 dismayed most committee members – and yesterday threatened to derail the Plan. 

Grey District Mayor Tania Gibson protested that her council identified its SNAs some years ago and the exercise had cost ratepayers a million dollars. 

It would now have to redo the process, under the government’s new and tighter SNA criteria, for another million, as would the other two councils and West Coast ratepayers simply could not afford it, she said. 

But her motion to reject or defer the Biodiversity chapter was defeated after legal advice that there were no valid Resource Management reasons for doing so. 

Regional Council chair Peter Haddock warned the move could put the whole Plan at risk. 

Mr Madgwick said he could not support taking out the whole chapter. 

“But we certainly need to get clarity from the Government instead of all hot air. Are they genuine in what they’ve been saying publicly, that SNAs are going to be pared back? Because if that’s the case we can address it via a future plan change.” 

In the end the committee agreed to ‘swallow a dead rat‘ as one member said - and took the advice of Principal Planner Lois Easton. 

“There really is no legal way to get the outcome you want, which is, you don’t want to do SNAs. Legally you have to do them. So, the question is how and at what pace and what criteria are used.” 

The committee could accept the chapter but extend the SNA deadline to 2030 if the Ministry for the Environment approved - on the grounds that the 2027 date was impractical, Ms Easton suggested. 

The committee eventually agreed – clearing the way for the rest of the Plan to be approved. 

Regional Council Chair Peter Haddock said it was a significant day for the region, and thanked staff, submitters and committee members. 

“It’s been contentious and difficult, and a huge cost to the ratepayers, but I believe the Commissioners have done a really good job for the future of the West Coast.” 

Mr Madgwick paid special tribute to the Commissioners and Ms Easton who had worked on the Plan from the start and done an “awesome job,” he said. 

“There are some really good gains for the West Coast generally .. and I have to say Poutini Ngai Tahu came out of it really well; we’re threaded right through this plan and it’s something that stands us in good stead for the future – ‘mo nga uri a muri ake nei’- for those who come after us.” 

The TTPP goes to the printers today (Thursday 25/9) and goes live when publicly notified on October 10. 

Disclosure: Mr Madgwick is also the Editor of the Greymouth Star. He had no part in the writing or editing of this story. 

-LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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