Kāpiti Coast District Council will publicly notify a package of four District Plan changes to update some road classifications in Paraparaumu, better protect indigenous biodiversity, align local and national election signage rules, and correctly zone new open space areas.

District Planning Manager Jason Holland said consulting on a group of unrelated plan changes at one time (called an omnibus’ plan change) is an efficient way to update the District Plan.

“We consulted on a draft version in April-May this year, and directly with iwi, affected landowners, and others we identified as likely to have an interest. We got some useful feedback and made some improvements as a result.”

Plan Change 1D applies to three streets in Paraparaumu: Arawhata Road, Tutanekai Street and Ventor Drive. Correcting the classifications of Arawhata Road and Tutanekai Street will improve road safety by ensuring that vehicles can turn on-site and exit nose first onto those streets. The plan change will also correct an error in the route classifications of Tutanekai Street and Ventnor Drive in Paraparaumu.

Plan Change 1F removes unintended consequences that have occurred under a rule in the District Plan that allows indigenous vegetation to be modified and removed in specific circumstances. The change ensures the rule properly protects significant indigenous vegetation as required under the Resource Management Act. This plan change also includes a change to a table of key indigenous trees to recognise the two separate kanuka species present in the district.

Plan Change 1K will bring the Council’s rules on election signage sizes into line with national regulations for election advertising.

Plan Change 1L updates the District Plan to create new Open Space or Natural Open Space Zones for areas obtained by the Council for local parks, natural environment, and recreation as part of recent residential subdivisions. The plan change will also update the zonings of the public park area of Maclean Park in Paraparaumu Beach and Jim Cooke Memorial Park carpark and toilet block area in Waikanae. They will change from ‘Natural Open Space’ to ‘Open Space (Recreation Precinct)’ to better reflect the nature and use of those areas.

The draft plan changes will be open for submissions from 14 July 2022 to 5pm Thursday 11 August 2022. The draft plan changes, associated reports, the submission form and details of how to send Council your submission will be available at kapiticoast.govt.nz/district-plan during that period.

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