FAQs

Council made a decision to undertake a staged review of the District Plan. The first stage was notified in 2015 and the latest stage (3 & 3b) was notified in September/October 2019.

NB: We are gradually moving away from this terminology and this is reflected in the new website where possible.

• Stage 1 was notified in 2015. Decisions on Stage 1 matters were notified in May 2018 and these decisions are currently under appeal.

• Stage 2 was notified in 2017. Decisions on Stage 2 matters were notified in March 2019 and these decisions are currently under appeal.

• Stage 3 & 3b were notified in September and October 2019. They are open for further submissions with hearings were held mid 2020. The hearing panel expect to release their recommendations by the end of 2020.

• Stage 1 included 33 key chapters including residential, rural and commercial zones (chapters 1-17, 21-23, 26-28, 30, 32-37, and 41-43).

• Stage 2 was made up of six topics: Transport, Earthworks, Signs, Visitor Accommodation, Wakatipu Basin Land-use and Open Space & Recreation.

• Stage 3 introduced three new zones (General Industrial, Three Parks Commercial, and Settlement), a district wide Wāhi Tūpuna chapter, Design Guidelines for Residential zones and the Business Mixed Use zone, as well as variations and amendments to various land and provisions.

• Stage 3b introduced a new Rural Visitor Zone chapter, a variation to Chapter 20 Settlement Zone in relation to Cardrona Village and the Cardrona Character Guideline 2012, and a series of zoning proposals, mapping notations, and variations and amendments.

 Click here for a visual on the different stages

When submissions are open for a proposed chapter, you can make a submission through our online portal, Consult24. This is the preferred way to make a submission, but you are also welcome to download a copy of Form 5 and email or post it to us.

You can present supporting information/documents at the hearing but it must be within the scope of your original submission.

All Commissioner Recommendations will be released at the conclusion of the hearings for a particular stage. These recommendations will be notified and will be taken to Council for ratification as Council decisions. Submitters will be notified and there will be a public notice.

If you are affected by a request made in a submission (i.e. you are a neighbour), you're eligible to make a further submission stating whether you support or oppose the original submission.

If you are affected by a zoning request made in a submission, you are eligible to make a further submission stating whether you support or oppose the original submission

These are landscapes and places that hold particular cultural and ancestral significance to Kāi Tahu (Ngāi Tahu) and their culture and traditions with their ancestral lands, water, sites, wāhi tapu, and other taonga.

By mapping them, it should help to appropriately manage and protect these sites.

When planning a proposal, and before submitting a resource consent, you may wish to consult with iwi if your land falls within a Wāhi Tūpuna area.

Situations where consultation is recommended include:

• Proposing something in an identified wāhi tūpuna area (see Chapter 39 and planning maps).

• Proposing an activity listed in Chapter 39.

• Activities within Statutory Acknowledgment areas including activities on lakes and rivers.

If your activity falls within a Wāhi Tūpuna area, early consultation is considered the best way to ensure the effects of certain activities are appropriately managed early in the process.

Where early consultation is provided, this will likely make your resource consent application more efficient in relation to this aspect of your application.

You can contact either Aukaha or TeAoMarama as they facilititate consultation with Kāi Tahu Rūnaka:

Where consultation is required, work is done on a cost-recovery basis and applicants may be charged a fee. Aukaha sends a summary and recommendation for each resource consent application to the rūnaka that are kaitiaki of the area the application is located in. As there are many areas of shared interest, details of the application may be sent to more than one rūnaka. A letter detailing the rūnaka position on the application (oppose, support, neither oppose nor support) is sent to the applicant.

For large applications with extensive cultural effects, a Cultural Impact Assessment (CIA) may be required as part of the Assessment of Environmental Effects (AEE).

To find out more about the cultural significance of your land, you can view Wāhi Tūpuna online through our GIS Mapping System.

Wāhi Tūpuna locations are shown as hatched with a green outline.

Enter your property address then click on the property details box that should appear. Click over to the second tab and you will see the details relating to Wāhi Tūpuna values and the site number.

To view the details for the site number, please take a look at the Chapter 39 information on the Notification page of this website.

Please visit the Background Information page of this website.

Kāi Tahu provided the maps of Wāhi Tūpuna areas (areas that have cultural value and significance to them). 

Queenstown and Wānaka are noted as not being mapped as they have been extensively modified.

For more information on the mapped areas, please take a look at Schedule 39.6 in the notified provisions.

Like any regular resource consent decision, decisions on development or activities needing consent in a wāhi tūpuna area will be made by QLDC (or more commonly a delegated official) based on an assessment of the relevant information and the legal framework of the district plan and RMA.

Normal statutory timeframes will apply and Iwi won’t have a veto over your development.

These provisions would allow potential impacts on the cultural values of Iwi to be considered alongside what the rest of the district plan says about development and activities in that area.

People will have the same rights to appeal as any other consent decision.

In addition to your usual check of district plan rules, if you are intending to underake development within a wāhi tūpuna area, you will want to check whether you require a resource consent for any of the recognised threats set out in Schedule 39.6.

Where you do require a resource consent, then consulation with Iwi is encouraged and any effects of the activites on the cultural values of manawhenua will form part of the decision making process for the consent.

Most of the activites listed as recognised threats would require either a discretionary or non-complying resource consent through existing rules in the Proposed District Plan (PDP).

There are a few exceptions to this where the Stage 3 proposal includes changes to specific rules and standards.

The main change relates to the proposed 10m³ earthworks threshold.

Any earthworks within a wāhi tūpuna which exceed this volume would require a restricted discretionary activity resource consent under the proposals. discretion is proposed to be restricted to the effects on cultural values of manawhenua.

This is a change to the permitted standards for eathworks set by the different zones in the PDP, which in many cases allow higher volumes of earthworks before consent is required (outside of heritage sites and significant natural areas).

But the answer is no. Other activities where the status of the activity is intended to change are:

• Farm buildings which are currently a permitted or restricted discretionary activity in the Rural Zone where standards are met is proposed to be a restricted discretionary activity within a wāhi tūpuna.

• Subdivision which if not for these proposals would generally be a restricted discretionary activity, is proposed to be a discretionary activity within a wāhi tūpuna.

• Cemeteries and crematoria are proposed to be prohibited within the Town Centre Zone, Local Shopping Centre Zone and Business Mixed Use Zone.

• Renewable energy activities are permitted in some areas and would be discretionary activity within a wāhi tūpuna.

• Setbacks from waterbodies the activity status and setbacks would not change but (as with other activities affected by the mapping that could be a threat) effects on cultural values will be an additional matter to consider in decision making if a consent is required.

In some instances there are no rules triggering the need for a consent even though the activity is listed as a recognised threat. If this is the case, you will not require resource consent and therefore no consultation will be required.

You can find explanations of terms in Chapter 5 of the Proposed District Plan, including a glossary.

‘Kā Huru Manu’ (Ngāi Tahu Cultural Mapping project) includes place names and histories of Ngāi Tahu

Appeals Spreadsheet: use the filter (dropdown arrow) in the “topic” column.  This will show you all the relief allocated to the particular topic you have filtered on.  If there are subtopics, you can also filter in the “subtopic” column

Topics Table: view appellant names OR

Appeals Spreadsheet: filter on topic, view the appellant name column

Topics Table OR Appeals Table: search appellant name

Appeals Spreadsheet: filter on appellant name or court number, view the topic column

Please take a look at the Topics Table OR Appeals Table: search party name. These are available in the Appeals section of the website.

Website: view annotated plan.  Please note that this is the best source of information to answer this particular question OR

Appeals Spreadsheet: filter in “PDP provision appealed” column.  Please do not rely on this as the sole answer to this particular question – you should also check the annotated plan

Appeals Table: search appellant name OR

Appeals Spreadsheet: filter on appellant name or court number, view the address for service column OR

Website: check notice of appeal

Court’s party list: search party name OR

Appeals Table: search party name OR

Website: check s 274 notice

Email the Registrar and cc dpappeals@qldc.govt.nz

If a notice of mediation has already been issued, use “reply all” on the Registrar’s email to let everyone on the topic list know your new address for service.

We have not created individual topic service lists. When the Registrar issues the notice of mediation, you will be able to “reply all” to that email in order to serve the parties to the topic.

In the meantime, if you wish to generate a service list, you can use the Appeals Table and search using control/ find on the topic number.  You can also obtain addresses for service for appellants only by using the Appeals Spreadsheet.

Website: check status column for the particular appeal AND

Appeals Spreadsheet: filter on “Status of appeal point”, then filter on appellant name or court number.

Yes, but we don’t recommend it because it is a live document and is continually updated.

If printing, we suggest using the “hide column” and filter functions in Excel, until you have got the view that you want to print.  Then select the cells you want to print, and either export the selection to pdf, or print the selection.

No, because it is time consuming to produce hard copies that quickly go out of date.

It is better to give us a call if you are having difficulties, and we can talk you through how to find the answer using the live documents on the website.

The date is at the end of the filename of each document.

In the Appeals Table and Topics Table, the footer also shows when the document was last updated.

In the Appeals Spreadsheet, the “History record” column also shows when the document was last updated. 

Please contact us to discuss the issue.

Please don’t send us amended versions of the documents, as these are too time consuming for us to compare with the website versions.

If you are preparing your own position paper, please get in touch with us as we can provide you with a Word template.

Please contact us to discuss the issue.

The next step will likely be a memorandum to withdraw or refine your relief (if you are an appellant) or an email to the Registrar withdrawing your interest in a topic (if you are a s 274 party).

Refer to our website for the latest Minute with mediation schedules.

If you are part of the topic, the Registrar will serve you with the notice of mediation.