Posted: 15 February 2007
300 submissions on marine farm plans
About 300 submissions have been lodged with the Northland Regional Council on criteria to determine where new marine farms are placed in the region.
A 3 ½ -month consultation period on NRC plans to change its Regional Coastal Plan to allow for Aquaculture Management Areas (AMAs) ended yesterday afternoon (Weds 14 February).
Council staff say the exact number of submissions on ‘Proposed Plan Change 4’ is still being determined, but today (Thurs 15 Feb) estimated that about 300 submissions had been received.
Those submissions will be summarised over the next two months and the summary released for further public comment. Hearings on Proposed Plan Change 4 will be open to the public and are expected to be held about August this year.
Legally, new marine farms can now only be developed in areas formally designated as AMAs by Regional Councils and the NRC consultation is designed to ensure evaluation criteria it uses to consider applications for AMAs are as robust as possible.
Meanwhile, the NRC has also received about 200 public submissions on related aquaculture documents; its proposed ‘threshold test’ and maps.
Council Planning and Policy manager Glenn Mortimer says these are internal evaluative tools that will help the Council decide whether a request for an Invited Private Plan Change to establish an AMA should be rejected or publicly notified.
The threshold test document, together with the Plan Change 4 document, lists the information would-be marine farmers will be expected to provide when they make requests for private plan changes. The maps – in two sets - will be referred to when the Council processes private plan change requests.
Mr Mortimer says submissions on the proposed ‘threshold test’ and maps will be summarised and hearings held about June. Those hearings too will be open to the public.