All 446 responses on a potential growth boundary plan change for the district by Queenstown Lakes District Council will get a fair hearing, senior policy analyst Mark Rushworth says.
The responses were received as feedback on a discussion document and potential plan change which will map future growth boundaries for urban centres in the district.
Of the responses, 400 were received near the deadline for submissions from Arrowtown residents who filled in survey forms distributed by a group of residents concerned about the potential implications of boundary extensions for the town.
Although not a formal submission process, the feedback was sought from the community to help QLDC decide how to plan for future growth, Mr Rushworth said.
Staff would be analysing the quality of the arguments outlined in the feedback as well as taking account of the number of responses and, hopefully, report to the next strategy committee meeting in October, he said.
Both the quality and the number of responses would be taken into account, he said.
While it was up to councillors to decide the way forward, a plan change was a likely option because it offered several advantages over just using zoning changes, he said.
A plan change defining future growth boundaries would give developers, landowners and infrastructural service providers, as well as communities, some certainty over where they could expect to see urban development, he explained.
The District Plan zoning indicated land use for the current and near future, but did not indicate longer-term capacity, Mr Rushworth said.
While anyone could still approach council with a private plan change, these tended to consider the relevant effects within a plan change and peripheral area, rather than in the wider context which setting growth boundaries would allow for, he explained.
Formal submissions on a plan change are usually weighted according to the arguments presented, rather than simply the number of them.
The report is due to go to the strategy committee meeting on October 14.
