Do you own rural land in the Queenstown Lakes District?

If you do, then you need to be aware that the Queenstown Lakes District Council has at the direction of the Environment Court recently publicly notified a Variation to its Proposed District Plan proposing Landscape Schedules for land within what has been identified as Outstanding Natural Landscapes or Features and, in respect of the Upper Clutha land, identified as a Priority Areas where the Council is concerned about the impacts of further development and activities on landscape values.

The Landscape Schedules are intended to identify what the community and iwi value in respect of the landscapes but more importantly proposes to quantify the capacity of individual identified landscapes for further development and activities whether they be farming or tourism activities, earthworks, farm buildings, or rural living or visitor accommodation activities.

Once settled it is anticipated that these Schedules will inform decision makers in respect of applications for resource consents and Plan Changes within these areas. To that end, anyone who may own land within the areas covered by the Schedules and may wish to undertake any activity on such land in the future, needs to familiarise themselves with the contents of the Schedules to see how their plans may be affected.

Submissions on the Variation must be filed by 26^th August 2022. Following that the Council will notify a summary of submissions and members of the public will have another opportunity to support or oppose any primary submissions made.

If you would like to learn more about the process and or seek assistance with filing a submission please don’t hesitate to contact Graeme Todd or Ben Gresson from our Resource Management team at graeme@toddandwalker.com or ben@toddandwalker.com or on 03 441 2743.