The Department of Conservation (Doc) has raised concerns about some of the provisions in the Central Otago District Council (CODC) proposed plan changes on landscape values.
While generally supporting the proposed changes, which are in line with the Rural Landscape Study that began in 2005, the department has reservations about the provision which would allow discretion towards the benefits of off-site mitigation and private land protection initiatives.
Central Otago area manager Mike Tubbs said Doc was worried the proposed changes did not have enough detail to effectively assess the benefits of that mitigation.
Doc has also sought an amendment that would allow parties other than Doc's director-general to comment on land freeholded under tenure review.
The existing plan prevents Doc from advocating on certain lands freeholded under tenure review as a result of a reference (an appeal on the District Plan when it was notified in 1998). Central Otago District Council (CODC) planning team leader Ann Rogers said under the existing District Plan, no affected party (including Doc) was exempt from commenting if resource consent was required.
But the council determined who might or might not be an affected party, based upon what was being proposed.
The key is that those tenure reviewed under Part 2 of the Crown Pastoral Lease Act 1998 are not captured by the rules and do not require consent and are therefore not in the process.
Submissions were permitted only when the council had determined an application should be publicly notified, she said.
