The Athol Community Development Area (CDA) sub-committee has not endorsed the Southland District Council's plan to re-zone the township, which would allow for commercial activities to develop more easily and would have meant fewer restrictions on subdivisions.
Ratepayers and residents in the area oppose the zoning change, from the current rural resource area to an urban resource area in the Southland District Plan, because they are concerned future development could adversely affect unique environmental resources in the area.
Some were in support of the zoning change, believing it would encourage growth in the township.
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 towards the end of September.
"Council had received requests for a zoning change in 2005 and the Athol CDA requested the council investigate a plan change in 2006.
"The Athol community had asked council to investigate options after the area had seen significant growth in the past seven years," Mr Falconer said.
Six options were investigated, including changing the township zoning to an urban resource area or creating a new special zoning for Athol.
Staff considered the urban resource area the best option.
That would have encouraged the consolidation of new development within the township, but would have restricted several rural activities, including 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 have retained the key environmental values that people hold dear," Mr Falconer said.
"However, nothing was set in stone and the CDA meeting last week saw a decision against moving in that direction."
The sub-committee said it did not want to entirely rule out the possibility of an Athol urban resource area being established and would be happy to re-consider its decision if public support for the concept increased in the future, he said.
