The 220-signature petition entitled "opposing property overlays in the Waitaki District Plan" was lodged with the Waitaki District Council by the organiser and former district councillor Jan Wheeler on July 24.
The council at its July 30 meeting deferred receiving the petition.
But it came as provisions like Significant Natural Areas (SNA) and Outstanding Natural Landscapes (ONL) laid out in the new Waitaki District Plan are set to be changed by the government.
Mrs Wheeler, in her petition covering letter describes "a gross overreach" by the council across private property rights in the drafting process.
The implication was the loss of management and control by landowners over their property.
Mrs Wheeler also raised concerns on an unclear "non-ground truth process" around provisions like SNAs including the "lack of validation of features".
"Lack of transparency, equality and lack of proper process in communication and consultation" were also raised by the organiser.
But a council staff report recommends rejecting the petition because it does not meet the council’s standing orders requirements.
Waitaki District Council governance and policy adviser Ainslee Hooper said the petition failed to meet standing orders "in a variety of ways".
"Officers are recommending that it be declined on that basis," she said.
While the council could waive standing orders to agree to accept the petition at the meeting on Tuesday, it was recommended it be rejected because it failed to meet a fewer than 150 word requirement.
"Mrs Wheeler’s petition has a lot more than 150 words," Ms Hooper said in the report.
The report was authorised by chief executive Alex Parmley.
According to word count, it contained 336 words and an accompanying two-page letter which included "a large number of additional concerns that expand on the wording in the petition," Ms Hooper said.
"Given the excess wording in the petition, the apparent inconsistencies about the nature of information that has been provided to ... signatories, and the additional wording in the letter which seems to be an addition to the petition that may or may not have been sighted by all signatories or even some of them, it does not meet the requirements of standing orders.
"On that basis, officers are required to recommend that [the] council declines to accept it."
It follows a collective group of unhappy Waitaki District landowners making their feelings known at the July 30 council meeting, in the public forum.
Landowners told the council some of the proposed maps for the likes of ONLs were plain wrong.
They called for a genuine engagement by council staff. They also called for a delay in the district plan’s formal notification in light of the government’s signalled changes to the overarching legislative framework.
Ms Hooper said the council had options including waiving certain standing orders to accept the petition.
But the content of the petition meant, "that accepting it could be considered to be inconsistent with other recent decisions".
If the council went down that path it could have "consequences and bring added risks" just as the district plan draft process was wrapping up for notification.
Councils are obligated to identify and make provision for central government environmental policy provisions under the Resource Management Act.
They include the likes of SNAs, which became a requirement over 20 years ago.
They must also include Outstanding Natural Landscape and Outstanding Natural Feature areas, and Sites and Areas of Significance to Maori.
Ms Hooper said in declining it the council could "require" concerned landowners to make formal submissions once it had been publicly notified.
