Interest in district plan runs high

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 12, Issue 579, 28 March 1995, Page 3

Interest in district plan runs high

Although receiving 130 submissions covering 8001000 different points in regard to the Ruapehu District Council's proposed district plan means a lot of work for the town planners, they are happy with the result. "If you get no submis-

sions it can mean one of two things — you either got it right first time or people don' t care," said town planner Jeff Page last week. He said if it were the latter case, problems were very likely to crop up later. "It is only going to build a better plan," he said in

reference to the submissions, which closed on Friday 10 March. Most of the submissions came from individual residents and not from organisations, he said, which was also a good sign that people had taken notice of the plan and thought about it.

He said it was hard to give an accurate summary of submissions as they were still collating them all, but that it appeared some parts of the plan were not touched by submissions or only drew minor response, while others drew " a very good smattering" of submissions. A large proportion of submissions referred to riparian management and public access along waterways, especially for Ohakune. Other areas that drew high response included: the indigenous vegetation rules; protection of outstanding features; management of conservation land; and the management of heritage resources. Ruapehu District Council's 130 submissions is about average in comparison to other councils. At the extreme end, North Shore City Council received 9000, while South Waikato received just 70, said Mr Page. Any part of the plan that is not the subject of a submission now remains as part of the council's planning rules. The process now involves the planners going through all the submissions and making comment and a recommendation as to whether the rule in question should remain or change. They must answer each and every point raised, so the work ahead for them is not

a small matter. Once they are collated the submissions are summarised and made available to the public, for 20 working days. Then the public has the right to make submissions on the submissions, and this will be the last opportunity for people to comment on those submissions. After that hearings will beheld,probablylate 1995, or early 1996 and Mr Page said a high proportion of submitters wished to be heard.