Council urged to carry on making a plan

Coastlands has called for the council not to ‘‘abandon’’ a review of its development rule book in the face of community pressure.

It comes as Kapiti Coast District Council looks to appoint independent consultants to decide whether the district plan review should be dropped.

At Thursday’s council meeting, Coastlands chief executive Richard Mansell said parts of the plan were ‘‘overly complex and restrictive’’, but ditching it would be a waste of money.

The shopping centre had already spent ‘‘well in excess’’ of $30,000 on the review, including submissions on the plan, and other submitters.

‘‘There are probably hundreds of others who have made some kind of investment in this process.’’

The plan review has been running since 2008, and has cost the council at least $1 million.

‘‘As a ratepayer I would be very disappointed if that money was just thrown away and we go back to position one: Start all over again,’’ Mr Mansell said. He said pre-hearing conferences, hearings and any appeals would give submitters a chance to identify and remedy flaws.

‘‘I believe that these forums will provide the opportunity to amend or change the district plan and to find the anomalies that will always creep in to such a lengthy document.’’

He said Coastlands is committed to ‘‘participating fully’’ in the process, despite the expected cost to the centre.

The council announced in October the independent review of the draft plan following pressure from opponents to coastal no-build zones.

The zones were based on the findings of a report by Dr Roger Shand outlining the impact of sea level rise and increased storm intensity from climate change.

It found 1000 properties were at risk from coastal erosion within 50 years – another 800 within a century.

The report was inserted in the affected properties’ LIMs, and used to devise no-build zones, and relocatable home-only areas on Kapiti’s beachfront in the draft plan.