Combined Coast districts plan closing

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

From local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:

The draft Te Tai o Poutini Plan (TTPP) has drawn over 300 public submissions so far.

Submissions close at 5pm on Friday.

The draft plan -- which combines the Grey, Westland and Buller district plans - was publicly notified in July.

Hearings are expected to be under way by mid-2023.

Plan committee chairperson Rex Williams said the level of submissions was as expected and indicated "a good level of interest".

Planning staff had also fielded a lot of calls from the public. The impact of the plan on individual properties was one thing people had clarified in discussions with staff.

"Submissions range across everything really," Williams said.

Half appeared to be around property zoning and the remainder reflected questions on other zoning aspects of the draft.

For some, the TTPP had been an introduction to the planning process.
He said there had been "one or two mistakes" in the mapping and there was opportunity through the plan committee's own submission to flag anything that needed clarifying.

"Obviously we're leaning over backwards to resolve anything like that."

Williams said some late submissions would be accepted "in exceptional circumstances".

While the deadline for submissions is tomorrow - after already being extended twice - late submissions could be accepted for up to a week later "however they have to be late for a reason".

Exceptional circumstances would include delays because people had been out of the country, had not received the mailout notification, or involved timing issues for community organisations wishing to make a collective submission, he said.

Drafting of the new plan began in 2019 after the Local Government Commission directed the West Coast Regional Council to oversee the process of combining the three plans.

The TTPP Committee was formed as a result of that and is made up of representatives of the four councils and West Coast iwi.

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