Key draft changes for the future District Plan

Draft changes aim to make existing rules for businesses in the Rural Zone clearer and stronger to:

• ensure only those businesses which are servicing rural activities and have a genuine need to be located within the Rural Zone, are allowed to locate there; and
• protect rural character and primary production as the priority for rural areas.

Also note that some of these draft changes may be affected by the draft National Planning Standards which the Ministry for the Environment is currently developing.

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

• Clarifying definitions for rural-associated businesses, such as rural business, rural produce seller, and rural-based industrial activity.
• Setting up a small rural business would not require a resource consent, ie would continue to be a permitted activity as long as certain permitted development standards were met. For example, such standards could be maximum area size (increased from current 100m2 to 200m2) and maximum staff number (keep the current rule for up to two staff).
• A medium rural business between 200 and 500m2 in size would become a restricted discretionary activity.
• A larger rural businesses larger than 500m2 would have discretionary status, whereas other non-rural businesses would continue to have non-complying activity status.
• Consider policy support for businesses with discretionary status to enable them to set up in the Rural Zone if there is a need for them to be close to certain rural activities and/or are inappropriate for any other zone.