The developer of an Oamaru subdivision which could add up to 24 residential sections to the town is asking the Waitaki District Council to change its district plan so the development can go ahead.
It is the first plan change request by a private individual to the council since the Resource Management Act was made law in 1991.
Normally, plan changes are instigated by the council itself.
The request, which was adopted by the council's strategy committee this week, has come from Holmes Management Ltd, owned by Grant and Kathryn Harris-Rhodes, of Oamaru.
Developers have a number of options open to them under the Act if their proposal does not comply with the district plan.
The most common is to seek resource consents.
More rare is a request from a private individual for a change to the district plan.
Holmes Management wants to subdivide 9.6ha in Saleyards Rd, land which is zoned Rural Residential.
Under that zone, the minimum section size is 1ha.
The company proposes a new zone for its land, Residential 1.
It would have a minimum section size of 600 sq m, compared to 300 sq m in the usual Residential zone.
The company has indicated up to 24 sections could be created on the site, although the number will depend on the final subdivision plan.
Planning officer Richard Sutherland told the committee the council had four options to deal with the application - reject it, accept it, adopt the change itself or treat it as a resource consent application.
After considering all the criteria laid down in the Act and case law, the council accepted the application.
The costs will now be met by the applicant company.
If the council had adopted the change as its own, the council would have paid the costs.
The private plan change will now be advertised for public submissions.
Once those close, it will again be advertised for cross-submissions.
The plan change will then proceed to a hearing and the council will make a decision, using either its panel of councillors or an independent commissioner or commissioners.
Policy planner Jack Chandra told the committee that it was not to consider the merits or otherwise of the plan change when it made its decision yesterday.
Its sole role was to decide whether to adopt the request.
