Plan Change 50 - Rural Review

Proposed Plan Change 50 – Rural Review (PC50) is part of the rolling review of the District Plan and seeks to implement national and regional direction while considering the local rural context in Upper Hutt.

What is PC50?

PC50 includes the development of zone-specific provisions for the General Rural, Rural Production, Rural Lifestyle, and Settlement Zones. The proposed objectives, policies, and rules have been developed and tailored for each of the zones, considering their purpose and character, and what activities and the level of development are considered to be appropriate within each zone, including changes to subdivision standards and relevant planning maps. PC50 also introduces the Staglands precinct, Berketts farm precinct and the Clay Target Club acoustic overlay.

PC50 has taken into consideration the National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land (NPS-HPL). The rural environment of Upper Hutt has land which is considered to be highly productive land as it falls under classes 2 and 3 of the Land Use Capability assessment carried out by Landcare Research (Manaaki Whenua). This land will generally be zoned Rural Production unless it is already highly fragmented through subdivision or development. 

Update - October 2024 

Further submissions closed on 13 June 2024. We received 242 further submissions. 

In addition to analysing these submissions and the issues therein, we are awaiting further Government direction on potential changes to the National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land (NPS-HPL).

Subject to clarity on these potential changes, we intend to hold a hearing in 2025.  

Update - June 2024

On Wednesday 29 May 2024 Upper Hutt City Council publicly notified the Summary of Submissions on Proposed Plan Change 50 to the Upper Hutt City Council District Plan 2004, and the period for further submission was due to close at 5pm on Thursday 13 June 2024.

We were then made aware of a submission that wasn’t included in the summary of submissions or published in full due to a transmission issue. This submission relates to provisions across Plan Change 50 and is Submission 257: Transpower New Zealand Limited.  

Because of the broad-reaching scope of Submission 257 and taking into account the number of primary submissions and complexity and extent of Plan Change 50, Council then extended the time frame for making further submissions on Plan Change 50 to the Upper Hutt City District Plan 2004 to 5 pm on 26 June 2024.   

All further Submissions which had already been lodged with Council will be reviewed and fully considered as part of the hearing process. These earlier further submissions did not need to be re-lodged. If a submitter wished to amend an earlier further submission; or file an additional further submission in relation to any submission (not just Submission 257), this is was possible as long as it was received by 5 pm 26 June 2024.

A link to summary of submissions, including Submission #257, is below under “Summary of Submissions” and “Full Submissions”. Please also see “Consultation – May 2024”  below for further details on the Further Submissions consultation.

Consultation - May 2024

Consultation for PC50 closed on 17 November 2023 and we received 256 submissions.

We have finalised our summary the of submissions made on the PC50 and are now asking the community to review the summaries and make a further submission on the decisions which have been requested by submitters.

We have prepared summaries by submitter and also by topics, these can be found in the table below. To find your submitter number please refer to our list of submitters: Full-list-of-submitters.pdf(PDF, 227KB)

Of the 256 submissions received, 39 of these submissions requested a change of zoning, from what was proposed under PC50.

To ensure the public has a good understanding of what these change of zoning requests might mean for them (as neighbours and the wider community) we have mapped each of these submissions. 

Map viewer for rezoning requests

In summarising the submissions and preparing the maps, we have sought to capture the intent of the original submission whilst making sure that the summary can be easily understood by the public.

Making a further submission

Further submissions can be made by anyone in the community with an interest in PC50, for example anyone who lives, works, or volunteers in the area. If you decide to make a further submission, you will also need to send a copy to the person who made the original submission no later than five working days after you submit it to us.

Further submissions must be completed on the Further Submission Form (Form 6), must state whether or not you wish to be heard on your submission and can only be made on a matter in support of, or opposition to, an original submission. Word and PDF copies of Form 6 can be found in the table below.

You may make further submissions electronically or in writing to the Council in the following ways:

• Online: letskorero.upperhuttcity.com/pc50-rural-chapter-review

• In person: Upper Hutt City Council, 838 – 842 Fergusson Drive, Upper Hutt

• Post: Proposed Plan Change 50, Upper Hutt City Council, Private Bag 907, Upper Hutt, 5140

• Email: planning@uhcc.govt.nz

If you need any assistance with the submission process or wish to discuss PC50 further, please get in touch with the Planning team on (04) 527 2169 or email planning@uhcc.govt.nz 

The Ministry for Environment also has a submission guide which may be helpful to making your submission: https://environment.govt.nz/assets/Publications/Files/3.2-making-a-submission.pdf

Further submissions close at 5 pm, 26 June 2024.

Consultation - October 2023

Upper Hutt City Council publicly notified proposed Plan Change 50 – Rural Review (PC50) in the Upper Hutt Leader on 4th October 2023. We had feedback from the Community that a longer submission period would be favourable, therefore the submission period has now was extended by 2 weeks (from 3 November 2023 to 17 November 2023). This time extension was publicly notified in the Leader on 25 October 2023.

Consultation formally closed on 17 November 2023. 

View the Operative District Plan Zoning vs. Proposed Zoning map below

View proposed zone mapping

You can also view the full proposed zoning and provisions in the table below. 

Alternatively you can use the District Plan e-Plan.  The best way to view this is to:

1. Add an address to the search bar at the top of the screen
2. Untick the current map layers on the right (under Map Tools) and just tick "Proposed Plan Change 50 - Rural Review"
3. Click on View Full District Plan on the left hand side
4. Click on "Select to view plan changes on or post consultation" in the dashed line box and choose "Proposed Plan Change 50 - Rural Review"
5. The provisions are on the left, just use the drop down arrows to show options

Background

Draft PC50 started in 2019 and in December 2021 was separated into the Intensification Planning Instrument (IPI) for residential areas and PC50 rural review. Draft PC50 had several public engagement periods.  The engagement materials and feedback from these periods and the background documents are available below or you can visit the Draft PC50 (2021) webpage.