District-wide matter: Heritage items and protected trees

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District Plan Review consultation now closed.

Initial public consultation on key draft changes to the current Selwyn District Plan closed on Monday 8 October 2018. Thank you to everyone who let us know what they thought of the review so far.

What’s next?

Following this initial public consultation on the District Plan Review, the Council will consider all feedback and start developing detailed provisions for the Proposed District Plan. Please note that a summary report on the initial public consultation will be made available on Your Say Selwyn website at www.selwyn.govt.nz/districtplanreview.

It’s expected the Proposed District Plan will be

District Plan Review consultation now closed.

Initial public consultation on key draft changes to the current Selwyn District Plan closed on Monday 8 October 2018. Thank you to everyone who let us know what they thought of the review so far.

What’s next?

Following this initial public consultation on the District Plan Review, the Council will consider all feedback and start developing detailed provisions for the Proposed District Plan. Please note that a summary report on the initial public consultation will be made available on Your Say Selwyn website at www.selwyn.govt.nz/districtplanreview.

It’s expected the Proposed District Plan will be notified in early 2020 for formal public consultation. The longer timeframe is due to the local government elections at the end of 2019 and ensuring the newly elected Council endorses the Proposed District Plan before it gets notified.


We want to know what you think about the draft changes to the current District Plan's rules affecting heritage items and protected trees. These draft changes have been endorsed by the Selwyn District Council for further development as part of its District Plan Review.

How can I have a say?

To give us your feedback on the draft changes to, you can:

There will be many consultation opportunities for feedback at different stages of the District Plan Review and this is the first such opportunity. It’s expected that the new District Plan will be notified in early 2020 and be fully in place, subject to any Environment Court appeals, in March 2022.

Background

Selwyn has experienced several waves of settlement by Māori and Europeans over many years. As a result there are sites, buildings and structures which are of cultural or historic value to individuals, families, iwi, Rūnanga and communities in our district.

Historic and cultural values are often associated with historic buildings, structures and sites, trees planted to commemorate special events, buildings that are part of a community’s identity, the plants used in customary practices, land forms, routes, traditional trails and traditional activities.

Heritage Items in the current District Plan

The Selwyn District Plan includes a list of heritage items which have been recognised as having significant heritage value to the people of Selwyn, and are therefore protected to ensure their significance is maintained. Currently listed heritage items (a total of over 150) can be found in the Appendix 3 of both Rural and Township Volumes of the current District Plan:

Key current rules can be summarised as:

  • maintenance work of any listed heritage building, structure or site is permitted without the need for a resource consent.
  • any work not covered by maintenance has a restricted discretionary activity status.
  • discretionary activity status for removal or demolition of any listed heritage building or structure except where it has a “Category I” listing with Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (NZPT).
  • non-complying activity status for removal or demolition of any listed heritage building or structure that has a “Category I” listing with Heritage NZPT.

Protected trees in the current District Plan

There are trees in our District which are of significance to the district due to their heritage value or the contribution they make to the District’s environmental and amenity values. Currently there are 107 protected trees listed in in our District Plan. There are a range of species of trees of varying sizes, evergreen and deciduous, and in varying condition. See trees currently listed in Appendix 4 of the current Plan:


  • Key draft changes for the future District Plan

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    Heritage items
    As part of the District Plan Review, the Council ran a public consultation from late January to early March this year to hear from residents whether there were any buildings, structures or other heritage items that they believed had heritage value and needed to be protected for current and future generations living in the district.

    Following the public engagement we received over 40 nominations from the public for new heritage items. Another 50 potential items were identified by Dr Ann McEwan, a heritage specialist who has been engaged by the Council to assist in the review of heritage items listed in the District Plan.

    The Council’s District Plan Committee has endorsed the following key draft changes related to heritage items for further development:

    • Update the assessment criteria for heritage items, which includes consideration of the heritage item’s setting.
    • Have one schedule in the District Plan and one set of rules that apply to all listed items.
    • Amend the schedule of listed heritage items by removing 10 currently listed items (mainly due to the fact that they have been demolished) and adding new items. The total of proposed listed heritage items would be 209. See the draft list of:
    1. currently listed heritage items to be deleted from the Proposed District Plan
    2. currently listed heritage items to be retained in the Proposed District Plan
    3. new heritage items to be added to the Proposed District Plan.


    Protected trees
    The Council’s District Plan Committee has endorsed the following key draft changes related to protected trees for further development:

    • Have new criteria for assessment of protected trees.
    • Amend the schedule of protected trees by removing some existing ones (mainly due to the fact that have been damaged or destroyed by storms) and adding new ones. The total of proposed protected trees would be 100 (excluding groups of more than one tree). This draft schedule is aligned with the technical assessment undertaken by a qualified arboriculturist from Treetech Ltd. See the draft list of:
    1. proposed trees to be added to the new District Plan
    2. proposed trees to be removed or kept for the new District Plan.

  • Summary of key issues with the current District Plan

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    As a result of the review of current policies and rules specific to heritage items and protected trees, the following issues with the current District Plan have been identified:Heritage items
    • Current criteria for heritage items are no longer best practice and there is insufficient research to support the current assessment.
    • Current rules aren’t fully effective at protecting heritage items from inappropriate subdivision, use and development.
    • The current Plan simply lists the item (building, structure etc) but doesn’t clearly identify the setting in which the item is located.
    • The current Plan doesn’t provide for archaeological sites, historic heritage landscapes and the interiors of built heritage items.
    Protected trees

    Key issue with the current District Plan is that the assessment methodology used to identify and list trees for protection doesn’t reflect best practice.