FAQs about landscapes
- - subdivision;
- - earthworks, including quarrying/mining;
- buildings;
- - forestry and vegetation removal;
- - vineyards and orchards;
- - pastoral intensification/agricultural conversion;
- - signage.
What’s the District Plan Review process for Outstanding Natural Landscapes and Features?
The review process for a topic such as Outstanding Natural Landscapes and Features can be broken down into the following stages:
• Review of current rules and policies specific to a topic, informed by targeted stakeholder consultation.
• Identification of issues with current rules and development of options to address these issues.
• Present preferred option report for addressing issues to the Council’s District Plan Committee for endorsement.
• Targeted consultation with stakeholders and affected landowners on preferred option post endorsement by the District Plan Committee.
• Wider public consultation on a range of issues and draft changes to the current District Plan (expected to take place between July and October this year).
• Formal public consultation on the notified Proposed District Plan with all proposed changes. At this stage it’s expected the Proposed Plan will be notified in March 2020.
What could it mean if I owned land in an area classified in the new District Plan as:
Outstanding Natural Landscapes
The level of management of the area will depend on the values that make it outstanding. Some areas may have restrictions on buildings where these would have a significant impact on the visual qualities of that landscape, others may have restrictions on forestry where that would change the naturalness of the area.
The main activities that are being considered for control through rules include:
Similar restrictions are being considered where these are necessary to protect the visual amenity that has been identified as contributing to the landscape values.
How have outstanding landscapes been determined?
A comprehensive technical study has been undertaken into all landscape character areas of the district to identify what values are expressed in each area. These have then been evaluated against the criteria set out in the Canterbury Regional Policy Statement. Specialist analysis has then determined what areas pass the threshold for consideration as outstanding. In addition, this analysis has determined that some areas which don’t reach the threshold for being outstanding do have high visual amenity values that should be recognised.
Why do we need to have landscape protection areas in the District Plan?
Section 6 of the Resource Management Act (RMA) sets out matters of national importance and directs all councils to recognise and provide for the protection of outstanding natural features and landscapes from inappropriate subdivision, use, and development.
The Canterbury Regional Policy Statement also requires the Council to consider this issue.
How the recognition and protection is done is then up to each council to decide.
The RMA also directs councils to review their District Plan every 10 years to make sure it’s still fit for purpose. This is what the Selwyn District Council is doing now.