Council progresses towards full District Plan review

21 MAY 2008

Immediate release

Hamilton City Council elected members have resolved to take significant steps towards making the city’s Proposed District Plan fully operative next year. At a full Council meeting this evening it was agreed that in order to secure the best planning outcomes for Hamilton, the District Plan would be reviewed in full and subsequently aligned with the city’s guiding key strategies, which have been created in conjunction with the community.

City Development Committee Chair Glenda Saunders says there is currently some mismatch in the aspirations and intent of Council’s key strategies with the regulatory provisions of the Proposed District Plan.

“Since the inception of key strategies such CityScope, Access Hamilton, Social Wellbeing and the Creativity and Identity Strategy it has been identified that the Proposed District Plan is not structured in a way which will enable and support the desired outcomes. The Proposed District Plan was first notified in 1999 and is simply no longer in line with current thinking and therefore not always able to deliver on the city’s aspirations.”

Since the Proposed District Plan was notified (1999) it has been subject to multiple variations that are designed to reflect this current thinking. There are also seven outstanding variations currently awaiting hearings.

Council will now progress as directly as possible to achieve an operative District Plan with the goal of commencing a full review around the middle of 2009. A combination of community priorities and existing Council commitments has determined the following process;

1. Clear backlog of notified variations

Seven outstanding variations will be progressed to hearing and indicative hearing dates have been established. All submitters will be advised in writing directly by Council of the indicative hearing timeframes. The variations are:
• Temple View
• Hayes Paddock
• Residential centres
• Peacocke Structure Plan
• Subdivision connectivity, Heritage, Special provisions in new growth areas, and miscellaneous provisions
• Ruakura industrial land zoning
• Rotokauri Structure plan and Stage 1 re-zoning

2. Progress only new variations to which Council is already committed
Council has made commitment to progress the following;
• Transportation related issues particularly regarding traffic demand management
• Structure plan and rezoning for Stages 3 and 4 of the Rototuna growth cell
• Rezoning of Stage 1 of the Peacocke Structure Plan
• Local Area Plan for Hamilton East
• Rezoning of Sonning Car Park (as part of the City Heart Project)
• Miscellaneous updating variation which serves to correct errors and update references.

3. Make the Proposed District Plan Operative

Council staff will now be working toward making the Proposed District Plan operative. Final timing will be ultimately determined by the successful progression and resolution of all existing appeals to the plan.

4. Commence review

The review is expected to start around the middle of 2009. The review process involves full community consultation, will examine all aspects of the District Plan, and will reference and align with Council’s guiding strategic framework.

ENDS

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