North Canterbury News: September 09, 2021

NEWS
10 The North Canterbury News, September 9, 2021
District Plan on agenda
Waimakariri's new draftDistrictPlan is
expectedtobeout for consultation soon.
The draft District Plan was due to be
discussed in aclosedsession at Tuesday's
council meeting, which was held on Zoom,
aheadofits release for public consultation
laterthis month.
‘‘It's abig piece of workwhich the council
has been working on for severalyears,’’
MayorDan Gordonsays.
Whilehewas unabletoelaborate on
what the draft District Plan will look like,
Mr Gordon noted that there has already
been considerable public engagement on
differentsectionsofthe document during
the District Plan Reviewprocess, including
on the Natural Hazards chapter.
Ahearings panel is due to be announced,
comprising two electedmembers, one iwi
representative and three independent
members,including an independent
chairperson.
Mr Gordon sayswhetherthe consultation
is conducted online or at publicmeetings
will dependonCovid­19 restrictions.
‘‘With the Three Waters Reform
engagement, we had alive onlinesession
on Facebookand we found that it worked
really well, so in futurewemay lookat
doingthatinaddition to public meetings.”
Buildings policy reviewed
Public feedback is sought on the
Waimakariri District Council's
dangerous buildings policy.
The council is reviewing it’s
Dangerous, Affected and Insanitary
Buildings Policy, with public feedback
welcome until September 24.
The policy provides guidelines for
managing dangerous buildings, or
those located nearby and buildings
that are contaminated or insanitary, in
away that reduces risk to people and
outlines the steps needed to reduce
danger, building unit manager Warren
Taylor says.
‘‘It’s an important tool we use to help
us make decisions like if abuilding is
safe to enter, or if fences or hoardings
are needed to keep people safe.
‘‘It was used alot following the
earthquakes with many damaged
buildings fenced off to keep people
away from any danger.’’
Dangerous, affected and insanitary
buildings are any where the conditions
mean the building or surrounding
buildings could pose apublic safety
risk.
This could be abuilding severely
damaged by fire which has lost its
structural integrity or it could be one
that causes neighbouring buildings to
be classified as ‘affected’.
Feedback can be made on the
council's website, letstalk.
waimakariri.govt.nz/buildingspolicy,
until Friday, September 24. Public
hearings are planned in October.
Property boom defies Covid
Covid­19 has failed to slow North
Canterbury's booming property market.
Even under lockdown restrictions,
houses have been selling like hot cakes,
while supply continues to be achallenge,
Bayleys Rangiora manager Ross Ditmer
says.
‘‘It's slowed down in terms of listings,
but in terms of houses already on the
market it's areal success story.’’
Under Alert Level 4all activity had to
be conducted online, with 100 percent of
scheduled online sales run by the
Bayleys Rangiora agents selling either at
auction or in the negotiations which
followed.
‘‘We did virtual viewings on Zoom
which was facilitated by the agent, with
the vendor filming at the property on
their phone and the buyer was able to ask
whatever questions they wanted,’’ Mr
Ditmer says.
‘‘We did it during last year's lockdown
and it actually works reasonably well.’’
With last week's move the Level 3, real
estate agents were able to host viewings
with strict guidelines, but no open
homes.
‘‘I know we've got an agent with 20+
people wanting to do aviewing on a
house, but we can only do two viewings a
day under Level 3soitneeds to be well
organised,’’ Mr Ditmer said last week.
Under the guidelines, vendors left the
property and left as many internal doors
open as possible to reduce contact.
Viewings were restricted to amaximum
of two people per viewing plus the agent.
Community funds available
Voting for applicants seeking support
from the MainPower Community Fund
closes tomorrow (Friday, September
10).
Money from the contestable fund is
available to community groups, cultural
organisations or schools operating in or
serving the North Canterbury region.
In each of the two funding rounds held
annually there is ashare of $30,000
available to be split between the
successful applicants.
There is $20,000 allocated for
community organisations and $10,000
distributed for North Canterbury
schools.
North Canterbury community
members are given the opportunity to
have their say about which charitable
organisations and school projects
should be supported by nominating the
applicants and voting for the finalists.
The recipients will be announced on
the MainPower website once all
recipients have been contacted which is
likely to be about two weeks.
The community fund was launched in
2015 and distributed $10,000 to two local
community groups.
Since then the fund has grown in
value and reach, with around 100 groups
receiving ashare of $130,000 to date.