People, Profit, Planet And Progress: an Alternative Spatial Plan for Rotorua

News Release: Rotorua District Residents and Ratepayers, 30 May 2017.


The Rotorua District Council (RDC) called for feedback to a Discussion Document entitled “Planning for the Future of Rotorua” to help extend their Vision 2030 out to 2050 in a spatial plan.

The RDRR contested Vision 2030. It now rejects the promise in the Discussion Document, that the Council fund perpetual growth in prosperity and wellbeing from increased rates and debt, as unsustainable and unwise. Instead, it proposes that Rotorua’s spatial planning be based on a “quadruple bottom line” of people, profit, planet and progress.

“The Discussion Document fails to acknowledge the Council is obliged in law to provide democratic and effective local government that recognises the diversity of our community,” said RDRR Chair Glenys Searancke. “We reject the Council’s adoption of a dated bicultural paradigm for local government as simplistic and divisive. Instead, Council should value interculturalism in our multicultural community as an appropriate basis for culturally respectful spatial planning.”

“The “City Gateways” policy proposal,” she said, “is an example of justifying unnecessary subsidies, and asserting bicultural differences, instead of presenting Rotorua as a welcoming community that celebrates interculturalism.”

“The RDC will need to redefine spatial planning prior to conducting evaluations, authentic consultations and data gathering,” advised Dr Reynold Macpherson, RDRR Secretary. “The weight of demographic research in New Zealand does not support the Council’s proposal to fund growth and wellbeing in perpetuity. Prudent spatial planning should allow for minor population surges, periods of stagnation, and decline in the longer term.”

“A neutral classification of the principles of spatial planning should be offered to residents and ratepayers,” he said, “rather than ideologically loaded statements apparently intended to bias public discourse. The RDC should commit to more actively supporting the Bay of Plenty Regional Council’s policy development process about water quality.”

“Council must recognize that forestry and wood processing will play a large part of Rotorua’s future, consult with the industry’s commercial, industrial and research leaders, and develop an appropriate spatial plan to support the sector,” argued Rosemary McKenzie, RDRR Treasurer. “The Council’s disproportionate concentration on pre-paid, high volume tourism with low local economic multipliers has become obsolete and is a major impediment to the urgent diversification of our economy. We need a “people, profit, planet and progress” spatial plan that can accommodate variances in growth due to demographic factors.”

“There should be less local government intervention in economic development,” she argued, “in order to focus more on the provision of enabling infrastructure and other core services in consultation with all sectors. The RDRR endorses an international literature review of geothermal energy research with the BOPRC to explore potential local applications that are environmentally sustainable. It calls for the immediate development of an arterial roading plan and a heavy industrial zone outside of the city.”

The RDRR urges Council to develop a much more subtle appreciation of how residents and ratepayers define the preferred nature of their “village” and respond to such diversity by encouraging and supporting plural village development plans with customised core services that are proportionate to population. It also recommends that Council stop the tactical practice of selling assets to sustain its cash reserves and ad hoc and populist spending, and embark on a strategic programme of recycling or selling assets to promote residential, commercial and industrial development and significantly lower debt.

To conclude, the RDRR argues that spatial planning should move from city-centric and command planning, based on prior ideological dispositions, to become evidence-based planning that begins with evaluation and a philosophical review of community purposes, and then considers pragmatic strategic options informed by inclusive local consultation of all stakeholders and by proven practices elsewhere. It notes that Rotorua will need a period of capacity building in local governance and service delivery management after regime change to implement a spatial plan based on “people, profit, planet and progress”.

The RDRR’s proposed spatial plan for Rotorua, “People, Profit, Planet and Progress: An Alternative Future for Rotorua District,” is available at http://www.rdrr.nz/wp/submissions/

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