A proposal in the Southland District Plan to rezone the town of Athol, north of Lumsden, has been rejected by the Athol Community Development Area sub-committee (CDA), after residents and ratepayers opposed the change at a meeting last week.
The proposal contained in the district plan is to change the zoning from the current "plains rural resource area'' to an "urban resource area''.
The proposed rezoning would allow commercial activities to develop more easily and mean fewer restrictions on subdivisions.
Most people at the CDA meeting in Athol were concerned rezoning could make it difficult to keep rural areas free of development.
However, some people did support the change, as they believed it would encourage growth in the town.
CDA spokesman Robert Durling said 90 per cent of the 40 residents at the meeting opposed the proposed zone change.
"There was a widespread feeling in the community that things should stay as they are,'' Mr Durling said.
"If it ain't broke why fix it?''
Southland District Council resource management planner David Falconer said the final decision on whether or not to proceed with the plan change would be made by the council's resource management committee, probably towards the end of September.
The council had received requests for a zoning change in 2005 from members of the Athol community and the Athol CDA requested the council investigate a plan change in 2006.
The Athol community had asked the council to investigate options after the area had seen significant growth in the past seven years, Mr Falconer said.
"There was concern in the community that development would go ahead on an ad-hoc basis,'' Mr Falconer said.
"It wasn't something council dreamed up.''
Six options were investigated, including changing the township zoning to an urban resource area or creating a new special zoning for Athol.
The urban resource area was considered the best option by staff.
This would have encouraged consolidation of new development within the township, but would restrict some rural activities, such as new, intensive farming operations.
The possible changes were not about forcing development to occur in Athol, but were aimed at allowing the community to develop in a manner that would retain the key environmental values that people held dear, Mr Falconer said.
However, nothing was set in stone and the CDA meeting last week resulted in a decision against an urban resource area.
The CDA had indicated it did not want to rule out the possibility of an Athol urban resource area ever being established and it would be happy to reconsider its decision if there was increased public support for the concept in the future, he said.
