Plan Change hearings set to start next week
Hearings for Council’s Housing for Everyone – Plan Change 9 are scheduled to start next week.
The District Plan changes aim to enable greater housing choice and supply in Rotorua and 99 initial submissions were received during consultation between August and October last year.
Forty-nine submitters are scheduled to speak to their submissions before an independent panel of Commissioners, chaired by David Hill. The hearings will be held across six days on the following dates:
- Monday 14 August through to Thursday 17 August
- Monday 21 August and Tuesday 22 August
Following hearings, the panel will make recommendations to Council for its consideration.
Consultation last year was followed by a further submissions process, during which Council received 173 follow up submissions, with a summary of submissions and further submissions notified in December and pre-circulation of evidence occurring ahead of the hearings.
Housing for Everyone – Plan Change 9 incorporates and gives effect to the government’s Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS).
It also aims to:
- Enable a greater supply and variety of homes that meet the needs of Rotorua residents;
- Achieve a well-functioning urban environment and efficient use of land;
- Better enable and encourage papakāinga development;
- Ensure development is integrated with infrastructure planning and funding for open space;
- Ensure that significant risks from natural hazards are appropriately managed in relation to increased development potential.
Fundamentally, the urban residential zones in Rotorua are being amended to better enable medium and high density living, in line with government policy and legislation.
Changes that took effect when PC9 was notified, on 20 August 2022:
Development standards in the Rotorua District Plan changed in Residential Zones 1 and 2, enabling landowners to build up to three homes of up to three storeys each on most residential sites, without requiring a resource consent.
See more about this change HERE and more about the MDRS HERE
Proposed changes that were open for submissions until 14 October:
- Introducing a High Density Residential Zone to enable more people to live in areas with access to amenities and employment through active and public transport modes. This will involve amendments across all urban zones to align development heights and densities with the National Policy Statement on Urban Development (2020).
- Enabling increased development density in the Commercial and City Centre Zones by enabling a greater height in these locations.
- Amending rules for papakāinga to make these developments easier to do and enable papakāinga to occur in both urban and rural areas;
- Amendments to better manage flood risk and geothermal hazards;
- Amendments to ensure protection of heritage values of cultural heritage features to protect these from inappropriate subdivision and development;
- Setting of financial contributions from development for reserves (NOTE: this does not refer to Development Contributions).
Final recommendations are expected to go to Council for its consideration and decision-making by late this year, possibly earlier, and the changes could become operative on or before 31 March 2024.
If the Council rejects any recommendations, the matter would be referred to the Minister for the Environment for a decision.
The hearings are open to the public to attend. They will also be livestreamed via Council’s Youtube channel and can be viewed live or later.
The hearings schedule is available HERE
All information relating to Plan Change 9 can be found at the following link on Council’s Let’s Talk/Korero Mai platform: He Wāhi Noho mō te Katoa – Te Panonihanga o te Whakaritenga 9 | Housing for Everyone - Plan Change 9 | Let's talk | Kōrero mai (rotorualakescouncil.nz)