A move to protect highly productive land may lead to it becoming almost impossible to subdivide land in nearly half of the Southland district.
The Southland District Council released a statement yesterday about the introduction of the national policy statement for highly productive land (NPS-HPL).
Council environmental planning manager Marcus Roy said the policy could have an impact across the country and across the Southland district.
The national policy statement was a piece of policy direction developed under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) protecting highly productive land from being fragmented and lost due to urban growth and rural lifestyle blocks.
It came into effect on Monday and meant private plan changes or council-initiated plan changes, as well as resource consents lodged with councils, must give effect to the new policy direction.
The policy was introduced mainly for areas near big cities which were being carved up for subdivision, meaning land for food production was being lost.
But Southland also came under the new policy.
Mr Roy said up to 40% of land in the district could be classed as highly productive.
"The NPS-HPL has significant impacts on the Southland district because highly productive land extends throughout the majority of the Southland plains," he said.
"It actively discourages rural lifestyle development. This is because rural lifestyle blocks are considered to fragment larger tracts of land and thus reduce the productive capacity of the land for primary production purposes."
He said in the Southland district over the past decade there had been about 400 subdivision applications. But to get those past the new framework for subdivisions would be "extremely difficult but most likely impossible."
He also said it raised the question of whether passing the family farm down generations would be possible in the future.
Often, parents build a house on the farm, through subdivision, and the farm is passed down to the next generation. But this may no longer be possible if subdivision is not allowed.
More advice on that issue is due from central government in the new year.
Factories and other commercial operations would need to not be on highly productive land.
Mr Roy said he could see the reason why the rule was introduced but it was going to have an impact on the district.
