Kaipara is dominated by its harbour - the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. KDC is looking at making more Kaipara land available for development and is targeting Auckland people and businesses.
Kaipara is dominated by its harbour - the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. KDC is looking at making more Kaipara land available for development and is targeting Auckland people and businesses.
Kaipara District Council is looking to significantly increase the amount of land in its residential, commercial and industrial zoning, freeing up hundreds of hectares for future development.
And Auckland people and businesses, who have a far more restrictive district plan, are being targeted as part of the expansion as it will be "cheaper and easier to move here, live here and set up new businesses" in the Kaipara.
In its $1.6 million District Plan update, the council wants to increase the amount of residential-zoned land to more than 2000 hectares, up 82 per cent on the 1147 hectares in its current 2013 District Plan.
It is also looking to increase the amount of commercial land by 138 per cent, from 39ha to 93ha. The council is also looking to boost its industrial-zoned land by 115 per cent, from 110ha to 237ha.
The increases are part of a raft of likely new content in Kaipara District Council (KDC)'s updated District Plan, for which $1.6 million is budgeted for work to date and through the current financial year. They were among aspects covered on Wednesday as KDC's new council had its first District Plan review briefing, in Mangawhai.
KDC is about halfway through its 1000-page-plus, multi-chapter 2013 District Plan review, now at the stage where a new Draft District Plan is in place
The increased residential, commercial and industrial land areas come as Kaipara experiences Northland's biggest population growth. Kaipara's population increased by 14.7 per cent in the last three years to 27,200 – the biggest rise in the North between 2018 (when it had 23,700 people) and June this year.
New Kaipara Mayor Craig Jepson says the District Plan is Kaipara's most important planning document. Photo / Susan Botting
KDC Mayor Craig Jepson said the plan was Kaipara's most important planning document as it underpinned how the district's land was used.
"We have one chance to make sure we get this right to serve the district well for the coming years," Jepson said.
Council work on updating its 2013 District Plan began several years ago, with the new council now taking up this mahi.
The new plan will be the last created by the council before coming changes to its foundation, the Resource Management Act. District Plan reviews are required every 10 years.
KDC team leader District Plan Katherine Overwater outlines details for the new plan once it becomes the Proposed District Plan about July next year. Photo / Susan Botting
"We need an easy-to-navigate set of rules and a customer service ethos that makes it easy for businesses and new residents to set up and move to the Kaipara," Jepson said.
"We are on the doorstep of Auckland, the biggest population in the country. Auckland has a very restrictive District Plan. We can exploit a comparative advantage to attract people to Kaipara by making it cheaper and easier to move here, live here and set up new businesses here."
He said growth was needed for Kaipara in the face of uncertain and potentially very difficult times the global economy was heading into. This was particularly important given associated depopulation trends.
Mangawhai's growth needed to be carefully managed. However, more people were needed to boost the population across the rest of Kaipara. This would allow its rural communities to attract local services like dentists, doctors, physiotherapists and shops with product ranges.
KDC's Cr Eryn Wilson-Collins.
Cr Eryn Wilson-Collins said attracting such services was critical.
She said the people of Pouto these days had to travel to Whangārei for basic services that had now disappeared from Dargaville.
Wilson-Collins said managed growth was essential. Creating vibrant, awesome places for people to live had to go hand-in-hand with protecting Kaipara's taonga.
Jepson said the District Plan underpinned subdivision, more of which was needed to attract people in particular to the shores of Kaipara Harbour, where views of the sea could make land currently of low production value more economic. People wanted blocks of 0.4ha to 2ha in size.
KDC team leader District Plan Katherine Overwater said the council was now reviewing the large amount of August Draft District Plan public feedback it had received. This would be fed into further developing the current draft document to the point where it would segue from its current non-statutory form into what was known as a Proposed District Plan, which meant it then became a statutory document.
Highlights of KDC's Draft District Plan (also known as exposure draft). Photo / Susan Botting
The Draft District Plan includes interactive maps where users can enter a specific address and relevant planning affecting that site appears.
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More land in the Kaipara is being freed up for development
KDC's District Plan review briefing meeting in Mangawhai on Wednesday. Photo / Susan Botting
