The plan could result in restrictions being put on thousands of hectares of private land in the name of biodiversity.
About 20 farmers attended the district plan review subcommittee meeting yesterday, spearheaded by Federated Farmers North Otago dairy chairman Otto Dogterom in his tractor.
However, the momentum was halted as the farmers were asked politely to sign in before the meeting began.
There was no public submission time allocated in the subcommittee meeting, meaning the farmers had no chance to offer their input.
The agenda for the district plan review is 764 pages long and has 33 chapters that need to be considered. It took the council about an hour and a-half to complete the first chapter. Many farmers had left by then.
Changes to the first chapter included amendments to definitions, removal of words and an unmoved suggestion from Cr Jim Hopkins to change the word Aotearoa to New Zealand.
The meeting took a break about 2.5 hours in. Most of the farmers left then.
Although they were not given the chance to speak, attendees were encouraged to submit in writing once the formal process had begun.
Cr Jim Thompson, chairman of the meeting, said "when the plan becomes proposed everyone is entitled to submit to that plan.
"Please do not presume this is the end of the planning process. We have only just begun."
Mr Dogterom already sent an email to councillors earlier this week with his concerns.
In the email, he said most of his land, valued at $13.48 million, would be considered an outstanding natural landscape area under the new plan.
Outstanding natural landscape areas have more restrictions and some types of farming are prohibited, such as plantation forestry and intensive farming, along with planting of wilding conifer species.
Mr Dogterom said he had spoken to rural commercial real estate agents and believed the farms would become more difficult to sell, lowering the value significantly.
Cr Guy Percival’s thoughts on the plan were met with applause from the rural audience.
"To me a lot of this is BS.
"Are we going to affect our farmers’ livelihoods ... right through the valley, just because someone drives up [SH83 or 8] for 10 minutes of their lifetime?
"We actually live there; we work there."
Indigenous species were "actually a damn curse" for farmers and had made moving stock significantly harder for farmers, Mr Percival said.
It was noted during the meeting that Mr Dogterom’s tractor had been issued with an infringement notice.
