A two week hearing of four key Plan Changes in the Queenstown Lakes District is now scheduled for December, QLDC planning and strategy manager Vicki Jones said.

Plan Changes 6, 8 and 10, notified last year, address the issues of access widths, car parking and amenity in high residential zones.

"These Plan Changes stem from the community's desire to improve the look and quality of high density developments" Ms Jones said.

Submissions on the Plan Changes closed in December last year with nearly 9000 individual points of relief requested.

"There were a large number of issues raised which means the council has had an enormous task to carefully assess each point," Ms Jones said.

In order to be in a position to more fully assess some of the critical points raised, the council has commissioned an urban designer to undertake some computer modelling of the proposed amenity rules.

"It has proved a lengthy process but it's important that we ensure the eventual Plan Changes are robust," Ms Jones said.

To that end, traffic analysis had also been commissioned to look into other points raised through the submission process regarding the carparking requirement and access widths.

"We will then be in a position to give expert advice on points raised in the submission process and at the hearing," Ms Jones said.

A pre-hearing conference was scheduled to take place in mid November, to which all submitters would be encouraged to attend, to be followed by the December hearing before an independent commissioner.

"We plan to run the hearing of each Plan Change immediately following one another and to allow for overall consideration of all the issues" Ms Jones said.

It was intended that the decisions on the three Plan Changes would then be released at the same time by March/ April, next year.

ENDS

For further information please contact Vicki Jones 03 441 0499

By: Sarah