Plan change ratified to rezone rural land to industrial at Cromwell
The Central Otago District Council has approved a change to the District Plan that will allow about 65 hectares of rural land to be rezoned industrial.
The decision includes provisions that will protect chafer beetle habitat on the adjacent Department of Conservation (DoC) Cromwell Chafer Beetle Nature Reserve.
At the meeting in Alexandra yesterday (Wednesday 25 October 2023), the Council agreed to ratify a decision of the independent commissioner in regard to Plan Change 18 (PC18), which effectively extends the industrial area of Cromwell, over an additional 52 ha of Council-owned land. This is located between the existing Industrial land off Cemetery and McNulty roads in Cromwell, and about 13 ha of private land between the Cromwell Cemetery and State Highway 6.
PC18 gives effect to one of the outcomes of the Cromwell Spatial Plan that was notified 28 October 2021. The plan change was heard by an independent commissioner, as the majority of the land to be re-zoned was owned by Council. Nine original submissions and four further submissions were received. Submissions were received from Waka Kotahi in relation to the impact of re-zoning on the intersections of Cemetery Road and McNulty Road with the state highway, and DoC in relation to potential impacts on the critically endangered chafer beetle and their habitat.
After extensive discussion with Waka Kotahi and independent transport modelling by transportation planners Abley in relation to state highway and Council roads, it was agreed that the proposed plan change would not have any additional impact on the two intersections greater than the projected growth.
The submission from the DoC requested a 25-metre setback of all buildings from the chafer beetle reserve boundary to avoid potential edge effects such as shading and run-off which may affect ground conditions, and light spill, as chafer beetles are nocturnal insects. The requested setback would have resulted in the loss of about 2.5 ha land that could be developed along the 1000-metre-long boundary with the reserve.
It was agreed to utilise the area on the reserve boundary for roading, providing two main links to the existing industrial development off Cemetery and McNulty roads, avoiding the existing High Voltage Transmission Line on the site. Utilising the area requested for the setback for roading was considered an efficient way of mitigating the concerns raised by DoC and maximising the development capacity of the site. As a result, changes have been made to the industrial chapter of the District Plan to require compliance with the indicative roading network, setback and light spill requirements.
To find out the status in other proposed district plan changes go to: https://lets-talk.codc.govt.nz/district-plan-changes.
