Hearings to consider more than 1100 submissions on the Queenstown Lakes District Council’s Proposed District Plan will begin on 7 March and last most of the year.

Cr Cath Gilmour, who holds the Council’s planning portfolio, said the process of considering and determining submissions would not be completed before the October elections as originally planned. “The huge volume of submissions and high public interest mean we’ll be giving the hearings panels all the time needed to make well considered decisions,” she said.

“While it would have been neat and tidy to have everything completed by the end of this council term, we agreed it was more important not to act in haste on matters that affect the future of the whole district.”

The hearings will be held in both Queenstown and Wanaka, before panels of Commissioners comprising both independent experts and elected Councillors, all led by independent  Chairman Denis Nugent.

QLDC’s General Manager Planning and Development, Tony Avery, said that compiling the submissions and setting up the hearings process was a huge logistical exercise that had taken months.

All hearings will be held in public, with the issues grouped according to the Chapters of the proposed plan that they relate to. People who made submissions or further submissions commenting on what others put forward are being contacted directly.

QLDC staff will also be contacting those who have said they want to appear in person to put their views before the Commissioners, to let them know when and where their submissions are scheduled to be considered. Depending on which chapters people submitted on, for some this will not be for several months.

Hearings already confirmed to begin on 7 March relate to the following chapters of the Proposed District Plan:

• The Council Opening
• Introduction
• Tangata Whenua
• Strategic Direction
• Urban Development
• Landscapes

Hearings on submissions relating to rural provisions of the plan are scheduled to begin in May, with those relating to the chapters on Heritage and Protected Trees due to start in June.

Submissions relating to the chapters on Subdivisions, District-wide Matters and Residential Zones are also timetabled to be heard before the local body elections in October. Submissions on the remaining three chapters – Business Zones, Resort Zones, Definitions – and those relating to the whole plan are scheduled for October and November.

Once all the submissions relating to the text of the Proposed District Plan have been considered, there will be a further round of hearings to consider submissions that asked for changes to maps within the plan.

Mr Avery said that the Council appreciated how daunting such a lengthy process could be for people within the community who wanted to have a say on how their area should be treated into the future. He said that every effort was being made to make the process as clear and understandable as possible for submitters.

All the information about hearings, submissions and the process of considering them would be on the Council’s website www.qldc.govt.nz/proposed-district-plan-hearings and a member of his staff would be available to answer questions by phone (03) 4410499 or email dphearings@qldc.govt.nz . Information about the Commissioners sitting on each panel would also be uploaded nearer the time for each set of hearings.