Proposed District Plan Overview

What is the Gore Proposed District Plan?

The Proposed District Plan shapes how we live, work and play.

It is the community’s rulebook, ensuring the environment and the things people love about living in the Gore District are protected while still enabling growth and prosperity. The rules of our District Plan set out what activities you can do as of right (permitted activities) and what activities you'll need resource consent for.

These rules cover things like:

• How you use your land
• How your business operates within the District
• Housing and zoning issues
• Culture and heritage
• Biodiversity and landscapes
• Hazards, risks and more

As you can see, there’s something for all of us in the District Plan.

Why is the Gore District Plan being reviewed?

Our current District Plan became operative in 2006, so is overdue for a review.

We’re living in changing times, a changing world, and our District faces new challenges when it comes to how land is used, including climate change and natural hazards like flooding.

Under the Resource Management Act 1991, district plans should be reviewed every 10 years. Reason our current plan needs updating include:

• For us to comply with the ever-changing rules and regulations.
• To bring the District Plan in line with the National Planning Standard. This standard provides a national framework to achieve national consistency for how plans are structured and written.
• To give effect to relevant national direction, such as the National Policy Statement Urban Development that requires Councils to provide enough zoned and serviced land to meet future residential and business land needs.
• Allows us to reassess environmental outcomes and priorities, and redefine our vision for the future of the District.

The current District Plan will remain in place until the Proposed District Plan is fully operative. However, as the Proposed District Plan moves through the formal process it has increased weight for considering resource consents for new activities and development. All the chapters, appendices and maps for the current plan are available on our Council website, just follow this link.

Some rules in the Proposed District Plan have immediate legal effect, more information on these rules can be found here.

Why you should get involved

Our District Plan helps us manage development in our area. It contains rules that may affect you if you’re considering a development or land use proposal.

It also helps us manage our District’s resources. These include:

• Growth – where we accommodate it and what it looks like
• Land use activities such as residential, commercial, industrial and farming
• Visitor accommodation
• Subdivision of land and associated earthworks
• Protecting historic heritage, landscapes, natural features and biodiversity
• Managing natural hazards
• Activities on the surface of water in rivers and lakes

Given the impact of the District Plan on all of us, we think it’s really important for our community to be involved in this review.

District Plan Review Background

The Council's District Plan Review Sub-committee, Council staff, our District Plan consultants and Hokonui Rūnanga representatives have been working on the review since June 2020.

In 2022 the draft plan was released for public feedback. Over 100 individuals and organisations provided feedback. You can read the feedback by following this link.

Nearly 40 zoning changes were requested across the District, as well as a number of text changes to almost all chapters in the draft District Plan. Additional technical work was commissioned and undertaken to respond to a number of matters raised in feedback.

Some chapters were not incorporated into the Draft District Plan as they were awaiting national direction and further technical information. These chapters included:

• Ecosystems and Indigenous Biodiversity
• Natural Features and Landscapes
• Development Areas

These chapters have been prepared separately and sent to key stakeholders for feedback. The Designations chapter has also been prepared following advice from Requiring Authorities.

The District Plan Review Team has finalised and integrated the Proposed District Plan to reflect feedback, technical advice, national direction, and to implement amendments based on Council and Hokonui Rūnanga recommendations.

What happens next

Submissions summary

Once all submissions have been received, a summary of submissions will be made public. There may be an opportunity to provide further submissions by relevant parties, but these cannot extend the scope of the original submission.

Hearings

Submitters who want to speak in support of their submission will have an opportunity to do so and present evidence at the hearing. A hearing panel will consider all the information and make decisions on submissions.

Decisions and appeals

The issued decision will be formally notified and must include the reasons for accepting or rejecting the submissions. Submitters may appeal the decision to the Environment Court.

Legal effect of rules

A rule in a proposed plan generally has legal effect, and must be complied with, once a decision on submissions relating to the rule is made by the Council and publicly notified. However, there are several exceptions:

• Where no submissions in opposition are lodged a rule is treated as operative when the time for making submissions has expired
• Where the relevant rule protects or relates to significant indigenous vegetation, significant habitats of indigenous fauna or historic heritage, the rule will have legal effect once the proposed rule is publicly notified
• The Environment Court can order that a rule will have legal effect from a different date
• A local authority can resolve that a rule has legal effect only once the plan is operative

Rules which have immediate legal effect are clearly identified in the proposed plan.

Plan becomes operative

A District Plan becomes operative (and any previous plan inoperative) on a date notified by the local authority following resolution of all submissions and any appeals. A local authority can approve part of a plan, if all submissions and appeals relating to it have been resolved, and that part can then be made operative by order of the Environment Court.