Yule won't delay plan changes

Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule said proposed changes were "just a tweaking" of the plan.

Hasting Mayor Lawrence Yule has rejected a call from one of his own councillors to shelve changes to the district plan until the issue of amalgamation is settled.

Councillor and property developer John Roil says he opposes a number of proposed changes to the district plan, the council's blueprint for regulating building and other long-term development criteria.

Mr Roil and surveyor Colin Shanley placed advertisements in Saturday's Hawke's Bay Today outlining their concerns about the proposed plan changes.

Mr Roil said with a possible amalgamation of the region's five local authorities on the table, and a decision yet to be made on whether the Ruataniwha water storage scheme gets the go-ahead, he believed the council should "take a step back and make an informed decision once an outcome has been reached" on those developments.

Mr Shanley said the proposed changes to the district plan were "huge and demanding in respect of residential property" and impose "alarming" controls.

"I urge our administrators to pause when the proposed district plan is being further processed."

Mr Yule said the council was required to update its district plan every 10 years and the current changes, which were still subject to further public consultation, were "a tweaking of the plan rather than wholesale changes".

He said one of the more controversial aspects of the proposed changes had been strong demand to retain the natural character of Havelock North through restrictions around development.

"That's come from the residents, they like the character of Havelock. Apart from that I don't see a lot of change in the plan."

Mr Yule said if a proposal to amalgamate the region's councils was confirmed by the Local Government Commission, it would likely be at least five years before a new region-wide district plan came into effect.

Mr Yule said Mr Roil had sat on the council's district plan working party that put the plan together and then sat on the council when it agreed to put the plan out for consultation.

"He's entitled to do what he wants as an individual and spend money putting an ad in, but at every opportunity he had up until now he didn't raise these points.

"We've been asked by developers and others to look at things and that's what this plan review is doing."

Mr Roil has also called on council to reduce development costs charged to developers.

"Property developers are either walking away or not engaging in construction of residential infill housing and industrial development in Hastings, due to the high developments costs placed upon them by council," he wrote in an opinion piece published in Hawke's Bay Today last week.

Mr Yule said the council had "had a serious look at development contributions and we're still looking at them but effectively what we've found is that we're pretty similar to most other councils in New Zealand".

"Effectively what John wants is for the ratepayers to subsidise the developers and the council's looked at that and said it won't do that."