No Direction yet but the meeting did happen (with a few other issues raised)

 

Those other issues I will covered in a separate post that looks at the Hearing Panel’s Procedural Minute – 6. In this post though I have the Pre Meeting Hearing Report that was covering the matters that I covered here: First Unitary Plan Pre-Hearing to get Under-Way

From that post I stated:

From what I can gather the Memorandum of Counsel is on the Further Submission process, the complexity of the Unitary Plan, and Auckland Council’s large submission to the Unitary Plan. The applicants have asked the Hearings Panel in this case for an IT expert and independent planning consultant to assist people through both the Unitary Plan and the Unitary Plan website. While the pre hearing is to go ahead it seems the Panel will decline this request by the applicants (hmm I could have done that for them having waded through all 7,000 pages of that cumbersome document a few too many times).

However, it is to note that we could see the Hearings grind down if pre hearings and hearings get stuck on the complexity of the Unitary Plan let alone anything else including rezoning at site specific level.

Source: First Unitary Plan Pre-Hearing to get Under-Way

The Procedural Minute (5) and the Memorandum for Counsel that led to the Pre-Meeting Hearing can be seen in the link above

 

Below is the Pre Hearing Meeting Report as a result of the Memorandum of Counsel called for in relation to further submissions:

 

No “Direction” has been set yet by the Hearings with the Further Submissions but the Panel has acknowledged the concerns that were raised about them:

Procedure in relation to further submissions
Mr Cavanagh spoke to the issues outlined in his memorandum dated 9 July 2014 and confirmed that Procedural Minute No. 5 dealt with the majority of his issues.

The panel confirmed:

• that they have been discussing the issue of additional items being added to the schedules and will be providing some direction on that matter soon
• Mr Cavanagh has raised a practice issue in regards to the Cultural Impact Assessment that the processing arm of council is responsible for. The panel does not have any control over council staff. Mr Cavanagh may wish to raise this
  issue with Council’s CEO
• that they have obtained the services of 15 very experienced mediators/facilitators and have taken on board the concerns of submitters being required to attend multiple mediations for one property.

Auckland Council responded:

• the Resource Consent department has two staff members available to assist the public with the Cultural Impact Assessment matter
• that the panel’s Parties and Issues Report that will be produced prior to a topic commencing will assist those submitters involved in mediation.

Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/236394705/Unitary-Plan-Hearings-Panel-Pre-Hearings-meeting-report-1#page=1

 

 

I will post up any Directions set by the Panel once they are out.

 

However, the Pre-Meeting Hearing did throw up two surprises. One being in regards to original submissions being allowed to partially or fully withdraw, and the other in relation to both the Regional Policy Statement (RPS) and the zones.

In regards to prime or original submissions being able to partially or fully withdraw:

Ability to submit partial withdrawal of submissions
The panel confirmed that the Council will accept partial withdrawals of submissions. Ms Chappell enquired if council will inform the relevant further submitters of the withdrawal or partial withdrawal of prime submissions.
Auckland Council responded that it hasn’t considered that point at this stage but confirmed that there will be a register of withdrawals and partial withdrawals on council’s website.

Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/236394705/Unitary-Plan-Hearings-Panel-Pre-Hearings-meeting-report-1#page=1

 

In relation to the the Regional Policy Statement the following was stated:

Request the panel to consider releasing draft recommendations following the RPS hearings
The panel confirmed they have had several discussions regarding this matter and are unable to confirm at this early stage what their view on releasing draft recommendations after the RPS hearings will be. The panel will not be in a position to make a decision in this matter until they have seen what cases submitters are likely to present on the RPS issues.

4. Any other matters
The panel announced that there will be an outline of the hearing programme on its web-site shortly. The panel is hoping to commence the pre-hearings on the RPS issues in mid-September 2014 and will endeavour to complete them in early February 2015. They will then make a decision about whether to release none, some or all of their recommendations on the RPS. The panel is anticipating there will be topics where pre-hearing meetings, mediation and expert conferencing may resolve some issues. Hearings on zoning, specific sites and precincts are not likely to start until the panel has heard the substance of the text of the plan, therefore later in 2015.

Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/236394705/Unitary-Plan-Hearings-Panel-Pre-Hearings-meeting-report-1#page=1

 

The matters concerning submissions on the topics of both the Regional Policy Statement, and zoning concerned produced the Procedural Minute (6) to begin addressing concerns around both of those “topics.” I shall post the Minute and the concerns in a subsequent post.

 

Talking Auckland will maintain coverage of the Unitary Plan Hearings Panel as they work their way through the submissions on the Unitary Plan.

Keep tabs either by “following” the blog or through my Twitter feeds: https://twitter.com/BenRoss_AKL