Make your mark on our draft District Plan

Porirua City is seeking community feedback on its draft District Plan, which is being updated to make sure it enables economic and residential growth while protecting the things that make Porirua special.

Our city is growing and changing and we want to work with the community to help shape this change, says Mayor Mike Tana.

To do this, the Council is reviewing its District Plan as well as developing the Porirua Growth Strategy.

Together, these will look at the “how, what, where and why” of growth and change for the city.

“The Growth Strategy will provide high-level direction around ‘where’ and ‘why’ we grow and change, while the District Plan creates rules about ‘how’ we change and ‘what’ this looks like, while also directing how we protect our environment,” Mayor Tana says.

The draft District Plan is now available to view and for the community to provide feedback. It’s in a digital ‘ePlan’ format, which will make the District Plan more user friendly, says James Jefferson, General Manager Policy, Planning & Regulatory Services.

“We worked with the community last year in the Make Your Mark campaign to understand the land use issues Porirua is facing, clarify outcomes the community would like to see and consider the range of options available under the District Plan,” Mr Jefferson says.

“The feedback we’ve received so far has helped us develop objectives and policies for the draft District Plan. We now want to check we’re on the right track with these, before we develop the rules that will form the proposed District Plan, which will be formally notified next year.”

Mayor Tana says the updated and improved structure of the plan is a real change in the way we do things.

“As well as being in the new digital ePlan format, the general structure of the draft plan has changed significantly from our operative plan – because it’s really important to us to make the plan accessible and relevant for everyone,” he says.

“This Council is working really hard to provide better ways of engaging, as we continue to grow the city.

“The draft plan includes more strategic direction and looks at ways of unlocking economic growth and enabling housing and urban design outcomes, without losing focus on the harbour, the values and principles of Ngāti Toa and everything that makes Porirua special.”

Community meetings will be held in November on both the District Plan and the Growth Strategy. Keep an eye on our website and Facebook page for more information.

The draft District Plan can be viewed here or at poriruacity.govt.nz/our-draft-district-plan and is open for feedback until 30 November.

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