A Dunedin City Council bylaw to control "freedom camping" has been voted into existence, but the city will have to wait up to a year before it has any teeth.
The planning and environment committee voted on Tuesday to approve the freedom camping bylaw, after consultation earlier this year.
The issue has dogged Dunedin, and other areas, for some time, with tourists freedom camping in ecologically sensitive areas, and inappropriately disposing of human waste from vehicles without facilities.
Last month, the matter went to a public hearing, in which a hearings committee of Crs Kate Wilson and Jinty MacTavish, and Hoani Langsbury, of the Otago Peninsula Community Board, heard some of 28 submissions on the issue.
The council was to have made a decision by May 31, but that was no longer required after the Government introduced a new Freedom Camping Bill to Parliament.
The new Bill, if passed, would provide for a $200 instant fine for illegal camping, imposed on the camper or the vehicle, and new regulations requiring campervan hire companies to record and disclose details so fines could be enforced.
Fines of up to $10,000 could be imposed by courts on a successful prosecution for illegally discharging a campervan's sewage.
The draft bylaw developed for consultation lifted a blanket ban on freedom camping in Dunedin, allowing it on public land managed by the council for self-contained vehicles - those with toilets. Campervans without toilets would be restricted to camping grounds.
A report to the committee from reserve policy and planning officer Dolina Lee said a potential issue with self-contained vans on public land was conflict between users, and a clause had been added stipulating no more than two vans within a 50m radius could stay at any site.
A decision had been made to ban all camping at cemeteries, and at Taiaroa Head, including Pilots Beach, which Cr Wilson said had been a response to calls from organisations during consultation.
Campervans that were not self-contained could have more serious environmental impacts, and it was decided they should be limited to "specific sites".
No sites had been identified, and to do so, an assessment would have to be made, criteria developed, then the community and stakeholders consulted.
"The community boards have expressed that they wish to have a significant role in this process," Ms Lee said in the report.
Cr Wilson said she expected sites would be identified where there were toilet and other facilities, most likely if they were already being used by campers.
An enforcement strategy would be required, and the recommendation was officers should respond to complaints rather than actively policing the bylaw.
Cr Wilson said that might change if there were problem areas that needed to be dealt with.
On the Freedom Camping Bill, Cr Wilson said the council could only use anti-dumping bylaws to fine campers, until the bylaw was scheduled under the Bill.
That was expected to happen in the next year.
The bylaw would be reviewed after it had been in place for a year.
