Long Term Community Plan 2012-2022 - Hurunui District Council

Hurunui Community Long Term Plan 2012 - 2022
Activity 2: Resource Management
Overview
Plans for the future
The Resource Management activity includes the various
functions of Resource Management, such as administering the
District Plan, resource consents, township planning, policy and
bylaw development.
Current Situation
Resource Management
Our District Plan has been in place since 2003. This plan
identifies key resource management issues for the District and
our objectives, policies and methods for addressing each of those
issues. The District Plan is a legal document which affects the dayto-day
lives of everybody in the Hurunui District. The Plan is a
requirement of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA). The
purpose of the RMA is the sustainable management of natural
and physical resources while avoiding, remedying or mitigating
adverse environmental effects and providing for the wellbeing of
communities. The Plan’s framework provides objectives, policies
and methods to manage the use and development of natural and
physical resources to meet the purpose of the RMA. The current
District Plan has not been frozen in time since 2003. We have
processed 31changes to parts of the Plan then, responding to
particular issues such as frost control fans, quarrying and mining,
urban and rural subdivision standards. We are also required to
review the Plan every 10 years.
To achieve the objectives and policies set out in the District Plan,
we set rules and standards which any developments must meet.
We process a number of resource consent applications from
applicants who want to do things that do not comply with the
land use provisions of the plan or who want to subdivide their
property. Two thirds of resource consents processed relate to
subdivision consents. We grant about 98% of resource consent
applications without public notification within 20 working days
of the application been received. The remaining 2% of consents
require notification for a variety of reasons, including situations
where potentially affected parties have not given their written
consents or the proposal sits outside the standard requirements
of the District Plan.
We develop bylaws and policies as well as review policy initiatives
set by other government agencies, and changes to legislation.
We also respond to plans prepared by other agencies to protect
the interests of the Hurunui community. We responded to a
proposed Regional Policy Statement and the proposed Hurunui
and Waiau River Regional Plan. We also lodged a submission to
the proposed Biodiversity National Policy Statement and the
National Policy Statement for Electricity Transmission which
required us to modify our District Plan within 2 years.
We are constantly monitoring the state of the district
environment. The District Plan will be fully reviewed over the
next 2 years and we aim to have it fully revised by the end of
2013. It will then be available for public scrutiny before it is
finalised. The purpose of this review will be to consider the ongoing
relevance of the resource management issues identified in
the current District Plan and the measures and standards used
to manage these.
We have already identified that intensification of land use
through the availability of reliable irrigation water will need to
be considered. We need to consider a policy position in relation
to new data on fault lines and earthquake risk, liquefaction risk
zones and possible tsunami hazard areas. In addition a number
of new national policy statements require amendments to the
District Plan. For example, electricity transmission. The issues
will be fully canvassed and consulted on with the community
prior to any significant amendments to the current District Plan.
In 2008 we developed a non-regulatory Biodiversity Strategy
and received a Department of Conservation grant to employ
a biodiversity field advisor for 3 years which was extended
for a further 3 years in 2012. We will continue over the next
three years to partner with other agencies to achieve positive
biodiversity gains for the District. For example funding from the
Hurunui Waiau Zone committee is being spent on biodiversity
projects in the District. The focus is on collaboration and
voluntary protection.
Funding
Operational Costs:
• Resource Consents are 100% user charges. We may
waive consent fees if provided for in the councils fee
waivers, refunds and remissions policy.
• Private District Plan Change costs are all met by the
applicant.
• Council initiated plan changes are funded by the
General Rate.
• Extraordinary planning issues will be assessed on a case
by case basis to determine the appropriate method for
funding.
• The balance of any costs will be met by a District Rate
(known as the planning rate).
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