The latest consultation – on criteria to determine where new marine farms are placed in Northland – marks the beginning of a formal Council process to change its Regional Coastal Plan to allow for Aquaculture Management Areas (AMAs).
Laws introduced by the Government last year ban development of new marine farms unless they are in areas formally designated as AMAs by Regional Councils.
Councillor Peter Jensen, Chairman of the NRC’s Aquaculture Subcommittee, says the latest consultation round is designed to ensure evaluation criteria used to identify AMAs under the Council’s Invited Private Plan Change (IPPC) process are as robust as possible.
Under the IPPC approach, would-be marine farmers – not Northland’s ratepayers – will have to pay the considerable costs of having areas zoned as an AMA, a move expected to save ratepayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“This latest consultation round will focus on fine-tuning the proposed evaluation framework; those criteria that will help us determine whether the Council should accept or reject requests from those wanting to set up marine farms.”
Cr Jensen says although work to identify AMAs began several years ago, this latest consultation round – including public events in Kaitaia, Kerikeri, Whangarei and Dargaville - will be among the most important to date because it marks the start of the formal process to change the Council’s Regional Coastal Plan.
Councillor Jensen says the criteria under the spotlight already reflect considerable input over the past several years from a variety of sources including private individuals, community groups, tangata whenua, other local authorities, Government departments and the aquaculture industry.
He says when the Council revealed its intention to use the IPPC system at the start of this year, many people made submissions concerned that this approach did not specifically exclude any areas from becoming AMAs.
However, the Council believes that the issues raised in submissions can be effectively dealt with by strengthening the new policy provisions. Accordingly the IPPC approach now contains robust provisions that will guide decisions made relating to aquaculture proposals in sensitive environments such as ecologically sensitive places, popular recreation spots or areas with special cultural or historical significance.
The provisions also deal with situations where aquaculture opportunities are likely to be constrained for other reasons, such as being near sewage discharges or within navigation lanes.
Cr Jensen says it is important for people to realise this new round of consultation is to determine the criteria for the ICCP process, not to debate the use of the ICCP process itself.
He says the public can make submissions on Proposed Plan Change 4 until 14 February 2007. As part of this process, a series of public ‘drop in’ events to provide more information about Proposed Plan Change 4 and other developments will be held during November at the following locations:
- Kaitaia - Thursday 9 November, 2pm to 4pm and 6pm to 8pm
REAP Centre, 33 Puckey Ave
- Whangarei – Tuesday 14 November, 2pm to 4pm and 6pm to 8pm
Northland Regional Council, 36 Water St
- Kerikeri – Tuesday 21 November, 2pm to 4pm and 6pm to 8pm
Wharepuke Subtropical Gardens, 190 Kerikeri Rd
- Dargaville – Thursday 23 November, 6pm to 8pm
Dargaville Town Hall, 37 Hokianga Road, Dargaville
Council staff will be on hand to answer questions and background information will be displayed and available to take away. Further information will also be available soon from the Council’s website www.nrc.govt.nz