A group of more than 100 Gore businessmen and community leaders proposed a pause to the district plan in early December of last year.
The reasons were concerns over forecast changes by central government, a letter calling the council relentless in its pursuit of a plan which would be obsolete and require further changes.
The district plan has only two more chapters to be heard out of 46 to complete the process before being signed off in August.
However, in a Gore District Council meeting yesterday the proposal was shut down, with a move to continue regardless of potential changes to legislation.
The council heard legal advice which suggested three separate solutions: to decline the request, to grant it for the proposed period of nine months, or to pause only the remaining two topics which have not yet been heard and defer those decisions for nine months.
Lawyer Michael Garbett advised the council although there might be legislative changes in 2026, the council would be put at considerable legal risk as it still was under the current Resource Management Act.
Mr Garbett said there was even potential for the council to default on its legal requirements, leading to ministerial invention, and there was no legal obligation for the council to give effect to press releases from the government until clear legislative change was put forth.
Mayor Ben Bell said it was counterintuitive to make such a decision based on potential changes, considering how much the RMA had been changed by governments in the past and could be changed in the future.
He said the district plan was 95% finished and the council might as well finish it, but noted the community frustration over "flip-flopping" from central government over legislative requirements for local government.
Cr Andrew Fraser said although he was initially in favour of the pause, his mind changed after researching the plan and the legislative responsibilities of council.
Cr Fraser also called out repeated attacks on the hearing panel staff, and said the rumours had grown out of control.
Cr Fraser said he had absolute trust in the hearing panel, and desired to see growth in Gore before giving his full support to the continuation of the plan.
Most other councillors agreed, some noting although there were parts of the plans they did not agree with, it was better to get the plan out and revise it later rather than delay it any further.
Only Cr John Gardyne voted to pause the plan, in favour of option 3, stating his disappointment in some of the chapters in the plan not being discussed in public committee.
Cr Gardyne said he would like to see it paused for a rethink and noted the cost and time of the public submissions, but finished by saying the plan would probably go through and he had faith in the hearing commissioner to make good decisions.
