Onto the nuts and bolts of the matter

 

From the Auckland Unitary Plan Independent Hearings Panel

Hearings set to tackle strategic growth planning issues

 

The critical planning issues of growth and the rural/urban boundaries for the Auckland region will come under the scrutiny of the Auckland Unitary Plan Independent Hearings Panel tomorrow.

The hearings focus on the proposed Regional Policy Statement which sets out the basic rules determining the key issues for planning and development of the region.

The Panel will consider more than a thousand submission points raised by 340 separate submissions covering eight key issues including:

• enabling quality urban growth
• enabling economic well-being
• protecting historic heritage
• Mana Whenua issues
• sustainability and natural resources
• coastal environment
• the rural environment, and
• responding to climate change

The Chair of the Panel, Environment Court Judge David Kirkpatrick, said the hearings have initially been taken up with procedural and administrative matters with numerous pre-hearing meetings and some mediation and expert conferencing.

“From tomorrow we are getting into the strategic planning issues involved in the Regional Policy  Statement that are at the forefront of many people’s minds,” said Judge Kirkpatrick.

“While all of the hearings are equally important, the Regional Policy Statement issues do touch on matters which have a particular impact on how the region will develop in the coming decades.”

Judge Kirkpatrick said Unitary Plan staff have produced a simple ‘How To’ guide and video as well as organising a Drop In clinic for submitters who are having trouble navigating their way around the process and coping with the number of hearing events they  have been invited to attend.

He said the Panel recognised this was the case, particularly, for – particularly lay submitters who do not have legal or specialist assistance in making their submissions.

“Some of these difficulties stem from the nature of the RMA, as in any specialist statute, some because of the scale and process and some because this is the first time a process of this kind has been undertaken,” he said.

Judge Kirkpatrick said it was important for submitters to remember that their submission will be taken into consideration whether they come to a hearing or not.

—Ends—

 

You can keep up with the Unitary Plan Hearings here: http://www.aupihp.govt.nz/

I note the site has been updated as well (although I believe there is more updates to the user interface coming to make getting around the place easier).

 

Please note that ‘How to’ guides and Drop In clinics have been organised and are running. I will take a look of this and see if it does make ‘making heads and tails’ of the entire situation better than previously.