The draft long term plan outlining the council's plans for the next 10 years gave the public an opportunity to have their say on what the council did, councillors said in a finance and corporate meeting yesterday.
Members of the public have until the end of April to make submissions on the plan.
However, chairman Stephen Woodhead said navigating around the draft document might be difficult for the public because the council had to meet amendments to the Local Government Act by former local government minister Rodney Hide.
"It's not an appealing document for the public. It is hard to find out what we do. There is 50 pages and a lot of it is duplication, but we have to follow the law."
It meant the document read like an internal procedural document rather than a public one.
"That is where the Local Government Act has taken us. I look forward to feedback from the community," Mr Woodhead said.
A 3.9% increase in general rates is proposed. Some ratepayers face further increases on targeted rates, including 7% for the Water of Leith flood protection works and 5% for Taieri works.
Finance director Wayne Scott said rate increases for the Leith and Taieri flood protection works had been planned for and the communities were aware of the issues.
Cr Duncan Butcher said the uniform annual general charge which formed part of the general rate had increased 3%.
Overall, targeted rates had dropped by 0.8% but there were both increases and decreases for particular projects.
Cr Louise Croot said while 10 years was a long period of time and could be hard to grasp, the public needed to look at the first three years especially.
"This is the beginning of the process. We have a long way to go."
The public have until the end of April to make submissions on the plan and a council subcommittee will hear them in early May.
Sitting on the subcommittee will be Crs Duncan Butcher, Doug Brown, Gerry Eckhoff, Trevor Kempton, Sam Neill and Gretchen Robertson.
