Rotorua Lakes Council to consult on changes to significant natural areas

Much of Mount Tarawera is considered a significant natural area. Photo / File

A number of natural areas in the district could be classed as significant if a new plan change takes effect.

Rotorua Lakes Council agreed to approve Plan Change 3 for public notification at a council meeting today.The proposed change would see 48 new significant natural areas or extensions to existing areas, 10 new geothermal significant natural areas and boundary changes to nine existing ones, boundary reviews on nine properties and the removal of some significant natural areas due to alternative protections.

Significant natural areas can be in both public areas and on private property.

The proposal came about following work on the Rotorua District Plan in 2012 which saw the council's first set of significant natural areas notified. A decision on those was released in 2014.

At that time the council committed to investigating more than 50 extra sites which had been identified by ecologists and in 2016 the council commissioned Wildlands to assess those sites.

Wildlands has now found most have local, regional, national or international significance. They identified more significant sites and reviewed the boundaries of other existing sites.

The geothermal ponds in the Rotorua Golf Club's Arikikapakapa Course are significant natural areas. Photo / File

They include blocks of land in Horohoro, Whakarewarewa Forest, Mangōrewa Gorge and near Hells Gate.

The council's operations group manager Henry Weston told councillors the identification of significant natural areas and the restrictions on their use were the "principal tool under the RMA to help achieve national objectives around the protection of indigenous biodiversity".

"It imposes restrictions on the use of those areas. The areas are mapped if they've got a particular significance ... then there are restrictions on the use of those areas."

The council's senior policy adviser, Kim Smith, said they were asking the council to take forward recommendations that had come from ecologists about the natural areas for public consultation.

Smith said there were also recommendations from the council's RMA committee which could be considered when rates were next looked at.

Those recommendations included changes to the council's fees and charges policy in relation to processing resource consents for some activities affecting SNAs, investigating a rates remission for the areas at the next annual plan and investigating an incentive fund for owners of SNAs at the next long-term plan.

Some of the existing significant natural areas in the Rotorua District include much of Mt Ngongotahā and Mt Tarawera, Sulphur Point where the sulphur trails are, and the geothermal ponds in the Rotorua Golf Club's Arikikapakapa Course.