The council has renamed the controversial chapter of Sites and Areas of Significance to Maori (SASM) to a new Ngāi Tahu Cultural Values (NTCV) chapter.
The SASM chapter had created an uproar in the farming community worried that the whole of the Gore area would be classified as sites and areas of significance to Maori.
But a council statement yesterday said the proposed change was intended to provide a more comprehensive proposal after months of confusion over the original proposal.
The new chapter had no mapped SASM sites in the Gore district, and cultural values will be applied to activities, during the resource consent process.
There are 15 activities from work near rivers/streams to permanent structures in a natural open space zone.
In a fact sheet about the change, the council said if the activity was permitted under the plan’s rules, there would be no need to consider cultural values regardless of a property’s location.
"Regular farming activities, property maintenance, and day-to-day business operations are generally not affected," the council fact sheet said.
No mapping was being implemented.
The proposed changes would be discussed at a public hearing on December 5.
Mayor Ben Bell said, in a statement, the process was overseen by independent commissioners and that final decisions regarding the proposed district plan will not be made until April next year.
The hearing into the proposed district plan was set to continue but farmers have been given more time to get their submissions ready.
The council will not delay the plan, and says "logistical restraints" made it not possible to sideline the hearing for a couple of months.
Federated Farmers Southland had requested a delay because of the sheer amount of work to be done on their farms due to ongoing wet weather.
Hearings panel chairman Cr Keith Hovell said the council did not have the time to stop the hearing.
Instead, it would continue next month but farmers did have the option of presenting evidence at a reconvened hearing on February 10.
"Members of the hearing panel are very much aware of the challenges facing the community at present, particularly the rural sector," he said.
"The hearings panel acknowledges that for some there are more important and pressing tasks to be done than preparing for and attending a hearing to consider submissions to the plan."
Federated Farmers Southland executive member Bernadette Hunt said the changes suggested by the panel needed to be studied at length.
