Selwyn District Plan Review
All councils conduct a District Plan review every 10 years, once a plan review is notified the public can make submissions on the proposed plan changes. Anyone can write a submission but as the process is often technical and, depending on the type of submission, can require a lot of information, you can engage a planning consultant to make a submission on your behalf. Often, submissions written by a planning expert are more likely to be successful.
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Client
Multiple private individualsServices
- Planning
The Challenge
During the Selwyn District Plan review, we submitted a variety of submissions on behalf of several private individuals. These included two submissions to rezone land from rural to residential. Rezoning applications need to cover numerous details from multiple technical perspectives, including strategic planning, and often need to be submitted in a tight timeframe. With our range of engineering and surveying experts in house we were able to advise our clients from multiple technical viewpoints without the need to engage external expert consultants.
The Solution
When a District Plan review is notified our planning experts review the proposed changes and advise our clients on how their land will be affected by the changes. As part of this District Plan review, Selwyn District Council had no plans to rezone any land. For our clients who were submitting a rezoning application, this meant they needed to provide all the relevant rezoning information to the Council. We ensured we understood our clients’ site, their expectations and what they wanted to achieve. We provided urban design advice, preparing layout plans and designs. This involved visualising how a rural block of land would function as a residential area, planning the road and section layout form scratch. Our civil engineers checked the feasibility of the land, and our planning team ensured the plans would work within Council constraints. Our geotechnical and environmental engineering teams were involved to check the suitability of the land for development. For one of our clients, their land and flooding challenges. Our three waters engineering team were involved to provide flood modelling.
Within the submission, our planning team provide the reasoning for the zone change application along with a cost benefit analysis of the environmental effects and a strategic assessment of the plans.
A District Plan Review is often a good opportunity to submit a rezoning application. An application for a private plan change to rezone land can be submitted at any time but the applicant must pay for their consultancy fees as well as paying for the Council’s consultants’ fees.
As the District Plan review progresses, our teams will provide technical evidence if required by the Council and will attend the review hearings on behalf of our clients.
With District Plan reviews, the timeframes for public submissions are often very tight. It’s best to engage a planning consultant early on if you are considering a rezoning application or want to know how a proposed plan change will affect your land.
By drawing on all our multi-disciplinary experts in-house, we can provide our clients with the breadth of technical advice and information they require to prepare their submissions within the short timeframes. Our ability to work closely together as challenges or further considerations arise give our clients a streamlined process and better efficiencies through quick collaboration to ensure their submission is successful.
Ensure you speak with one of our planning experts for advice on any plan change submissions.
