Review of Rural Land Use Under Way

Is the special nature of New Plymouth District’s landscapes being retained while enabling an appropriate level of rural land-use?

This is the question that New Plymouth District Council is looking to answer through a review of subdivision and land use in the rural area.

Council staff have prepared a discussion paper on the key issues and land-use trends, and outlined a variety of ways these could be managed.

A report on the rural land review has gone to the community boards this week and will be considered by the full council on 9 December, with a discussion paper being released for public feedback in the New Year.

The review is part of the council’s ongoing monitoring and review programme to ensure the District Plan is effective in achieving its outcomes.

Manager Environmental Strategy and Policy Mitchell Dyer says a landscape assessment indicates the character of the district’s rural landscape has changed since 1995.

“We have some visible development close to some highly valued landscapes, such as the rising slopes around the mountain and the ranges and in pockets along the coast,” he says.

“New Plymouth District’s identity is defined by its outstanding natural features, so the aim of this review is to ensure our rural area is used in a way that still retains our important rural and coastal landscapes.”

The rural land review follows a two-year review of urban development in the district, culminating in the Framework for Growth which was finalised earlier this year and which proposes rural land for future urban development for the next 20 years.

Public submissions to the draft Framework for Growth, as well as to the Community Plan 2004-2014 and the draft Coastal Strategy, highlighted concerns about the effects of rural development.

The research undertaken so far has identified that:

There has been a steady upward trend in rural residential development in the rural area – most particularly since 2000.
There are a number of vacant lifestyle and residential rural properties in the rural area that have the potential for development without further subdivision or land-use consent.
The size of rural residential and lifestyle properties is getting smaller in the rural area, reducing from an average of 2ha in 1996 to 1.7ha in 2007.
Based on past trends, there is sufficient available land to meet the forecasted development rates in the rural area. This includes rural land that could be subdivided close to New Plymouth (within 10km of the city’s boundary), in the ring plain and the area below the outstanding landscapes (the foothills of the mountain and ranges), and the coast.
Mr Dyer says the council is seeking a balanced approach between retaining the district’s rural character and rural land-use and communities.

“There are issues such as managing reverse sensitivity and the cumulative effects of subdivisions; but we also have rural communities that are facing changing demographics, which has implications on services such as schools and community facilities,” he says.

“It’s important that whatever approach we consider for future rural land-use takes into account the need for sustainable and connected communities.”

 

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