The Council’s District Plan Committee has recently endorsed the following draft changes for addressing identified issues for further development, which we’re now consulting on with affected landowners and stakeholders:

• Broadly, the draft landscape areas are similar in location, however a larger area of the district is now identified.
• Only two landscape classifications are now identified (ONL and VAL).
• The High Country is where the majority of the increases in mapped ONL and VAL areas are located.
• Refinement of the extent of the draft ONL and VAL areas in the Port Hills to remove overlap and confusion.
• Much of the broader draft ONL area includes Department of Conservation land (as it did originally).
• The margins of Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere are now included as an ONL area as they are integral to the broader waterbody of the lake.
• The entire Rakaia and Waimakariri rivers are now identified (up to the top of the terrace in lower sections). This matches adjacent districts (where they have been reviewed).
• Resource consents may be required for a wider range of activities to better protect landscape areas from adverse effects. For example, resource consents required for buildings on the margins of Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere, Rakaia River and Waimakariri River ONLs, and intensification of pastoral farming in High Country may also be subject to resource consent.
  

As a result of the review of current policies and rules specific to landscapes, we’ve identified the following issues:

• Existing protected areas and features have been identified on an ad hoc basis and not as part of a comprehensive review of the entire district.
• Current landscape areas aren’t considered to be adequately protected from the adverse effects from a number of activities, including quarrying, earthworks, mining, and pastoral farming in the High Country.
• Current provisions in the District Plan don’t follow best practice or are not fully aligned with regional requirements.
• There is an overlap in between the different landscape areas in the Port Hills, which is confusing and difficult to appropriately manage.