Future Development Strategy: Iwi group views industry in village as ‘blight on the landscape’

The Rotorua Lakes Council is planning where growth in the district should happen. Photo / Andrew Warner.

A senior Rotorua planner has criticised the lack of outcomes from a 2018 council district growth plan, as it considers a new strategy.

Stratum Consultants director Brett Farquhar spoke at a Rotorua Lakes Council hearing this week, representing iwi who he said see industry in their village as a “blight on the landscape”.

He was among submitters who spoke at a hearing on the draft Rotorua Future Development Strategy, which outlined growth for housing and businesses over the next 30 years and would be used to guide council investment decisions.

It includes proposals for intensification in four priority areas: Ngongotahā, the Westside, Central Rotorua and the Eastside.

Of the 108 submissions, 35 wanted to speak to the hearing on Monday and Tuesday.

The committee was made up of elected members from the council and Bay of Plenty Regional Council, plus independent chairman Greg Hill.

Farquhar spoke on Monday on behalf of Tura Ngāti Te Ngākau me Ngāti Whakaue ki Ngongotahā.

Its submission supported the proposal for an area east of the railway in the village to become residential but also believed there was an opportunity for mixed-use development in the area, including education.

“They consider the industrial land in the centre of the village a blight on the landscape, especially being located right across the road from the Parawai Marae.”

There had been a history of contamination of land and water from industry in the area, he said. It would like to see industry leave the area and said iwi had bought land as it came up for sale in the industrial area to be proactive in its vision.

He said it did not support moving industry to the foothills of Mount Ngongotahā as it saw that land being used for future commercial and tourism businesses.

Farquhar suggested land nearer Tārukenga, near State Highway 5, as an alternative and said this should have been considered as part of the strategy drafting.

“In my opinion, this is quite short-sighted and would have been apparent as a more than viable option to investigate further with adequate consultation with the collective.”

He also warned the strategy was only as good as its implementation.

“We only have to go back to the 2018 Rotorua Spatial Plan to see not one of the outcomes in that spatial plan has been implemented, with no new residential land zoned.”

Local Democracy Reporting put this to the council after the meeting and community. District development group manager Jean-Paul Gaston said land at Pukehangi had been rezoned as new residential land since the 2018 plan was adopted.

“Plan Change processes usually take several years and we successfully applied to the Government to use the Streamlined Plan Change Process to progress the re-zoning of Pukehangi Heights.”

He said the 2018 plan took a longer-term view of future development areas and supported it by successfully applying for the likes of Crown Infrastructure Partners (CIP) funding.

“We were starting to see growth we had not seen before and it was good practice to start thinking about where growth needed to go.

“The Spatial Plan, which will be replaced by the FDS, was an important strategic document to inform early responses to growth and our emerging housing challenges and has stood the test of time in terms of our thinking.”

Deliberations on the draft strategy will begin on Friday.

Laura Smith is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. She previously reported general news for the Otago Daily Times and Southland Express and has been a journalist for four years.

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