The decision to approve Private Plan Change 69 request (PC69) - which Rolleston Industrial Developments Ltd, part of Carter Group, lodged with the council 18 months ago - was made at Wednesday’s council meeting.
It follows an independent Commissioner’s recommendation to approve the plan.
"Those who submitted during the public consultations, and the applicants, will have 30 days to make an appeal to the Environment Court against the Council’s decision," said council environmental and regulatory services group manager Tim Harris.
If an appeal is received, the Environment Court will hold hearings and make the final decision.
During two rounds of public consultation on the private plane change request, 265 submissions were made on PC69 and 66 submitters gave evidence at the hearings.
"In response to council’s and submitters’ concerns a number of changes have been made to the original request," Harris said.
Harris said, since 2020, when the National Policy Statement On Urban Development was introduced, the council has received an unprecedented number of private plan change requests for rezoning land across the district. In total, 16 requests were made that, if all approved, will enable about 10,000 further residential sites across the eastern areas of the district.
"Without the NPS-UD the Council would have likely rejected most, if not all, of the private plan change requests before they had continued to be processed. This is because they wouldn’t have met the provisions of the Regional Policy Statement.
"We are required to process private plan change requests, such as PC69, as a result of the new national policy framework."
