Changes Ahead for District Plan

Dunedin (Friday, 2 August 2013) – What people can do on their land and how it can be developed is under the spotlight.

In November last year the Dunedin City Council started consulting on issues and options for changes to the Dunedin City District Plan, the plan that controls land use in the city.

From tomorrow, the community will get a glimpse of what those changes might look like as part of Preferred Options consultation on the second generation District Plan (2GP). This consultation, which runs from 5 August until 13 September, will give people the opportunity to help shape policies and rules including zone types and boundaries, and performance standards.

DCC City Development Manager Anna Johnson is encouraging people to give their views on the options.

“The DCC planners see this second generation Plan as an important opportunity to work collaboratively with our community and key stakeholders to create a Plan that has broad community support and input. The focus of this stage is to get as much input as we can to help shape the detail of planning policies and rules before they are presented to the Council next year.”

The suggested changes aim to:

• Create a new Strategic Directions section, which will provide clearer guidance on the key issues and outcomes for the city;

• Reduce the need for resource consents for minor activities;

• Improve the effectiveness of rules in achieving the outcome intended;

• Better respond to issues such as hazards and health and safety;

• Make the Plan clearer and easier to use.

Some of the key issues the Strategic Directions are responding to include limited population growth, how to best manage urban expansion, and the best way to protect the things residents value and that support our tourism economy.

Proposed changes to policies and rules include an overhaul of residential and rural zones so there is more focus on key issues and outcomes for different parts of the city.

This includes the expansion of medium density zoning, which provides for multi-unit housing (semi-attached and attached housing, including small apartments) beyond the student area. In most areas the height limit for development would remain the same as the surrounding residential areas (9m high, which is about two storeys). The limit would be 12m high near the campus and in City Rise as those areas have existing taller buildings.

Proposed changes include allowing people in most residential suburbs to build a garage in their front yard as of right. Currently this requires resource consent.

Other proposed changes would allow people to build ‘family flats’ (granny flats) in most residential areas and make it easier to install domestic and small-scale renewable energy generation devices, such as small wind turbines or solar panels.

Information on the 2GP Preferred Options will be available from tomorrow at www.dunedin.govt.nz/2gp. This will include information sheets for each of the main zones and activities. Hard copies of these will be available at Dunedin Public Libraries and Customer Services Centres from Monday.

Eleven ‘drop-in’ community workshops are being held across the city from 6 to 29 August and details of these can be found at the link above.

The formal notification, submission and hearing process for the 2GP is expected to take place in the middle of next year.

ENDS

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