Business matter: Business in small settlements

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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 that affect how businesses in small settlements across the district which have no business-zoned land: Arthur’s Pass, Doyleston, Glentunnel, Hororata, Kirwee, Sheffield/Waddington, Springston, Tai Tapu and Springfield, could be managed in the future District Plan. The 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 , 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

Business in small settlements in the current Selwyn District Plan

There are 22 towns or residentially zoned areas in the Selwyn district, from Prebbleton in the east, to Arthurs Pass in the west. The larger townships of the district that currently have their own business zones already make provision for allowing business activities to establish and prosper. However, there are nine smaller townships that only have existing residential zoning (except two sites in Doyleston which have business zoning) and several historic commercial and industrial businesses. These townships, Arthur’s Pass, Doyleston, Glentunnel, Hororata, Kirwee, Sheffield/Waddington, Springston, Tai Tapu and Springfield, are considered large enough to support modest commercial and industrial businesses. The population in these settlements ranges from 262 (Hororata) to 1,186 (Kirwee).


  • Key draft changes for the future District Plan

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    The Council’s District Plan Committee has endorsed the following draft changes for further development, which we’re now consulting on:

    • establishing a policy overlay, ie notation on planning maps, which would be applied to existing commercial and industrial businesses within the residential zones. Such an overlay is used to spatially identify an area in the district/settlement which has distinctive values, environmental risks or factors that require management in a different manner from the underlying zone provisions.

    By applying a policy overlay approach, existing commercial or industrial activities on residentially zoned land could change without having to apply for a resource consent as long as they met certain standards. For example a vet clinic may be replaced by a doctor’s surgery, so long as the adverse effects on traffic and residential character on the surrounding environment remain comparable. Alternatively the land could be used purely for residential uses.

    • developing new standards for district’s settlements without business zones which would be:
    1. more permissive, for example, by removing the requirement for employees to be resident on site; while on the other hand
    2. still controlling business activities to ensure they don’t adversely affect the residential character of the nearby residential properties. For example through rules such as maximum height of the building and hours of operation.

  • 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 business in small settlements, we’ve identified the following issues with the current District Plan:

    • It’s very difficult for a business to prove that they can rely on existing use rights.

    • Current District Plan doesn’t give businesses in small settlements which aren’t home-based any protection through specific zoning nor is it flexible to allow businesses to be set up outside existing use rights.

    • Restrictive rules related to scale of business activity, in particular maximum staff employed (up to two FTEs) and limits on vehicle movements generated by the activity.