FOLLOWING legal advice that its district plan “has holes in it”, Whakatane District Council will be seeking public feedback on more than 20 proposed changes.
The Whakatane District Plan was made operational in 2017. However, since then, staff have encountered “some holes”, which impact on their ability to manage some resource consent applications.
Senior policy planner Glenda Spackman told the council’s strategy and policy committee yesterday that after staff encountered the holes they then checked and found more “small gaps”.
“The legal advice we received is that we would have to fix these holes because if we were to face a legal challenge, we wouldn’t have a leg to stand on,” Ms Spackman said.
The holes concern 11 activities that currently have no matters of control or discretionary restricted assessment criteria; five that lack matters of control or assessment but that can be referenced to appropriate controls elsewhere in the district plan, and two activities in the subdivision zone that contain some assessment criteria but lack criteria to assess the impact of these activities on environmental outcomes.
Ms Spackman said the holes created uncertainty for people applying for resource consent and limited the council’s legal ability to control the effects of the activities.
Under the Resource Management Act the council is required to consult with the public in this process.
Groups which must be consulted with include Minister for the Environment, adjoining district councils and the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, tangata whenua in the district, community boards, the development industry, the business community and emergency service providers.
The draft district plan will be made publicly available for 20 working days.
Public consultation will take place from April 1 to 30.