Council adopts Te Karo Bay Hearing decision

Councillors accept hearing panel recommendation to re-zone land at Te Karo Bay and Sailors Grave Road.

A hearing panel's recommendation to re-zone parts of land at Te Karo Bay and Sailors Grave Road was adopted by councillors at last Wednesday's full meeting of the Thames-Coromandel District Council.

Members of the Tairua community originally took the issue to the Tairua/Pauanui Community Board in 2006, requesting a plan change to limit future development within the Te Karo Bay and Sailors Grave area.

109 submissions were received during the submission period early last year, the majority of which were in favour of the re-zoning.

In May 2009, two councillors and an Independent Commissioner served as the Hearing Panel and recommended that the area subject to the plan change be re-zoned from Coastal Zone (Residential Policy Area) to Coastal Zone (Outside All Policy Areas) with some modifications to the original proposal.

At last Wednesday's Council meeting, councillors decided to adopt the recommendations of the Hearing Panel's decision, subject to an appeal period.