Council enables Hautapu industrial land
Waipā District Council wants to enable industrial development at Hautapu, north of Cambridge.
Council’s Strategic Planning and Policy Committee agreed today to publicly notify Plan Change 17 – Hautapu Industrial Zone. The proposed change to the District Plan – the Council’s rulebook for development – will open around 55 hectares of land for industrial development, while aligning infrastructure plans.
The change would also rezone an area north of Hautapu Road from ‘rural to industrial’ by rationalising the industrial zone boundary. This better reflects current land use and helps with proposals to move industry out of Carter’s Flat in Cambridge. It also supports the subregional councils’ FutureProof growth strategy.
Public submissions have already opened on proposals to rezone Carter's Flat to a commercial mixed-use zone.
Council’s district plan and growth manager Tony Quickfall said the growth cell at Hautapu was not originally planned for industrial development until after 2035 – more than a decade away.
“However, a number of non-complying resource consents have already been granted on this land which are consistent with an industrial zone,” he said.
“In essence, what’s happening on the ground no longer matches land use, or the demand for industrial land within the Waipā district. This proposed Plan Change brings everything into line and means we can formally align our infrastructure planning for the area to meet demand.”
The Committee heard some neighbours north of the Hautapu Road rezoning have asked that a portion of their land, currently zoned rural, is also rezoned deferred industrial instead of industrial. Deferred industrial means it could not be used as industrial land until a trigger was met, usually having the right infrastructure in place.
The Committee said today it would not delay the Plan Change, but did provide in-principle support for a variation to proposed Plan Change 17 if those landowners could provide supporting technical evidence, subject to funding. The Committee noted a private plan change pathway is also open to neighbouring landowners if they wanted to pursue rezoning of their land.
The proposed Plan Change which will now follow a statutory public submission and decision process under the Resource Management Act. Submissions will open from Friday 30 September 2022. Any member of the public can submit on the plan change.
Hearing Commissioners for Plan Change 17 – Hautapu Industrial Zone will be Waipā District Councillors Clare St Pierre, Roger Gordon and Lou Brown. All three Councillors declared a conflict of interest at today’s Committee meeting and did not take part in discussions.
