YOUR LEVY AT WORK
NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT Michelle Sands : HortNZ environment manager
Selwyn District Plan – hearing
Hawke’s Bay Outstanding Water Bodies – mediation
Selwyn District Council notified the proposed Selwyn District Plan for public consultation in October 2020. Submissions on the proposed plan closed on 11 December 2020.
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council Plan Change 7: Outstanding Water Bodies proposes to change the Regional Resource Management Plan (RRMP) to include a list of the region’s outstanding water bodies, together with a framework which prescribes a high level of protection for these water bodies in future plan making.
Key matters that are managed by the district plan include: • Land zoning and subdivision – managing how land use change can occur and where urban growth is located. • Reverse sensitivity issues for managing conflict between land uses, including things like noise, light, standards for sensitive activities. • Provisions for buildings and structures, such as glasshouses, packhouses, worker accommodation and crop protection structures. • Storage and management of hazardous substances. • Protection of special features, landscapes and sites of significance. HortNZ and its expert planner presented evidence at the rural zone hearing in March.
Waikato District Plan – appeal The decision version of the Waikato District Plan was notified on 17 January 2022, appeals closed 1 March 2022. Parties may join appeals as ’Section 274’ parties by 22 March 2022. A total of 67 appeals were lodged. HortNZ’s appeal relates to: • Opposing requirements for Seasonal Worker Accommodation being limited to a Record of Title with an area of at least 20 ha (otherwise non-complying). • Opposing 12m setback requirement for artificial crop protection structures. • An amendment to GRUZ-P5 to ’provide for’ (i.e., through case-by-case assessment of appropriateness) rather than ’enable’ non-rural activities. • Seeking deletion of GRUZ-P16. • Seeking to enable ’Ancillary Rural Earthworks’ in flood management overlays. • Seeking an amendment to the definition of ’farming’ that restricts loading areas for helicopters and airstrips to only activities on the ’same site’.
6 NZGROWER : APRIL 2022
The water bodies identified in the proposed Plan Change 7 are the ’best of the best’ within the region, featuring exceptional cultural, spiritual, recreation, natural character, landscape, geology or ecology values which are remarkable in Hawke’s Bay. The decision on the Plan Change was appealed, by parties wanting to add more water bodies and more criteria. HortNZ has joined the appeal as a 274 party and is participating in the mediation. The focus of HortNZ’s involvement in the mediation is to help make the plan provisions clear and easy to understand for future plan users. We want to ensure that the identification of outstanding water bodies and their significant values is related to the purpose of the National Policy Statement, and that only those water bodies that are truly outstanding are captured by the plan change.
Auckland Council – collaborative science project HortNZ has committed to a joint modelling project with Auckland Council. Where possible, we seek to work with regulators to develop a mutual understanding of the science and economic information that will underpin future regulation. The aim of the project is to improve the way vegetable growing is represented in the Auckland Council Freshwater Management Tool. The project aims to improve the representation of vegetable rotations, management practices and the economics of the vegetable growing. Two growers are on the Technical Advisory Group. The groups also include a representative from Plant & Food Research, Agribusiness Group and HortNZ. The project will draw on previous modelling and the work underway as part of the Sustainable Vegetable Systems research project. A growers’ reference group has been established. Workshops will be held to ensure that a range of growers have input into the way vegetable growing is represented in the Freshwater Management Tool.
