Councillors will have a second attempt today at hearing a proposal to drop the Rotorua Lakes Council's statutory hearings committee and replace it with a new policy committee and consent hearings panel.
Councillors rejected the first report presented to them at a meeting on August 5 due to a lack of information and concerns regarding costs, and agreed to "park" the proposal until council staff supplied more detail.
The proposed changes would do away with the statutory hearings committee and replace it with two separate bodies, both of which would give Te Arawa iwi influence in planning and land-use decisions taken in line with the Resource Management Act.
In his report to councillors, the council's strategy and partnerships group manager Jean-Paul Gaston said the new approach also intended to meet the council's commitment to involve Te Arawa in decision-making and to reflect good practice identified by the Ministry for the Environment.
The proposal could create a panel of up to 10 which would take over responsibility for resource-consent hearings. Panel members would be jointly recommended by the council and iwi.
