But those opposing it are now being told to use the legal process if they do not like it.
The Waitaki District Council on August 27 received a petition opposing "property overlays" in the draft district plan.
It followed disquiet from rural landowners at finding large chunks of their land reclassified for zoning purposes under the draft district plan.
This included "overlays" for Significant Natural Areas, Sites and Areas of Significance to Maori, and classification of outstanding natural landscapes — all of which will result in far-reaching landuse planning restrictions on landowners.
When the draft plan is released for public submissions some aspects will immediately become legally binding for resource consent applications.
And last week the council agreed that the Resource Management Act submission process for the draft district plan is "the appropriate mechanism" to address the petitioners’ concerns.
The petition organised by a group, now formally organised as the Waitaki Guardians, sought for a proactive approach by the council to resolve issues with them before the plan is released for submissions.
However, at the November 26 council meeting, elected representatives voted to deal with petitioners’ concerns via the statutory submissions process.
The resolution directed the chief executive to write to the petition organisers to "signal" it will use the public submission process as the "appropriate mechanism" to hear concerns.
The resolution said this was "the final decision of council in response to the petition".
Speaking to the proposed resolution, council planning officer David Campbell said it was "basically saying if you are in opposition to certain things in the plan, there is a process".
Cr John McCone said he would not be supporting the resolution "at all".
He described that being presented as "a bureaucratic process".
"It doesn’t address the petitioners’ concerns," he said.
Cr McCone also noted that once the draft plan was notified, "it will become legally effective, which will override people’s concerns".
However, Waitaki District Plan subcommittee chairman Jim Thomson said to simply say "you don’t like something" was not a reason to reject it.
"Going forward, the subcommittee is still working through the draft that the subcommittee hopes to have before council before Christmas."
The subcommittee had formulated the recommendations in an effort to "move the process forward".
Cr Thomson then moved the recommendations, seconded by Cr Courtney Linwood.
Cr Jim Hopkins said he could see how those who signed the petition would view the recommendation as a "suboptimal response".
The number of people who had signed it was "relatively low" and the concerns raised in the wording "fairly general".
Cr Hopkins said the proposed resolution was "relatively silent on solutions" to either amend the draft plan or to resolve the issues raised by the petitioners.
He said he wished the planning fraternity "would embrace" a little better the current political climate given the "signals clearly sent from Wellington" that law change affecting land-use regulation is in the offing.
Mayor Gary Kircher said it needed to be kept in perspective.
To notify a draft district plan that was perfect was "idyllic", he said.
"It will not be as close to perfect as we might like ... there are a lot of reasons to get on with it."
District residents obviously had "legal steps" available to them but the council did want to minimise costs to submitters, "particularly in respect to people’s own land".
Cr McCone asked for his opposing vote to be recorded.
