District Plan to become "fully operative"

A final chapter in the development of a Far North District Plan will be written this month when the plan is notified as being fully operative, effective from 18 September 2009.

The plan has been Partly Operative since October 2007 pending the resolution of an appeal- first lodged close to six years ago.

The very last of the 93 appeals (covering 818 matters) lodged in 2003 to the Revised Proposed District Plan has been resolved by the Environment Court by way of a Consent Order issued last month (July).

Now all that remains to complete a process which started more than 10 years ago, is for the council to pass a formal resolution adopting the district plan, and notifying the plan as being fully operative- and this is expected to happen when the council meets later this month.

Ironically, while it has taken years of deliberations, negotiations, mediation and hearings to reach this point in time, the process of reviewing and updating the plan through Plan Changes has already started.

The Consent Order which completed the appeal process last month established a new zone for land north of Inlet Road between the Okura River and the Waitangi wetlands at Kerikeri. The South Kerikeri Inlet Zone will have its own set of ordinances and requirements, primarily designed to give added protection to the wetlands area and enhancing the coastal character of the area.

In the Revised Proposed plan the area was zoned Coastal Living, but the appellants sought a more restrictive environment. The compromise reached between the parties (including some of the landowners) was the creation of the new zone which while providing protection, also provides for limited development opportunities.