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News - 12 August 2010
From time to time we will update you with new legislation details and news about the team from Nicklin Surveying & Resource Management.
Land Transport NZ Cambridge Expressway Information
“Where is the motorway going? Here is the information you need. LTNZ held an open day in Cambridge yesterday and displayed detailes of the proposed expressway, due to start construction in 2012. All of the maps, charts and videos that were on display will be loaded to their web site. This is the place to go to see what is happening to the effected roads in your vicinity.
See
www.ltnz.govt.nz
GCN 12-8-10
Environment Waikato Farmer’s Guides
Environment Waikato has published this guide in two parts – “Farmer’s guide to permitted activities - Guide 1 and 2”. These documents are published as two A4 documents and were mailed out to all landowners recently. We find them a valuable resource and show the links to the relevant Regional Plan rules for various farming activities such as
We have several copies here in our office and they can be obtained by calling Environment Waikato on 0800 800 402.
See
http://www.ew.govt.nz/PageFiles/1447/guide1.pdf and
http://www.ew.govt.nz/PageFiles/16127/permittedactivityguide2.pdf
GCN 12-8-10
Waipa District Plan Changes Pending
Council staff have presented the proposed changes to the Council recently and they have come back with some issues for clarification and review. It seems like the planned September review date is likely to be pushed out October or even November.
GCN 3-8-10
Council finally decides on Hautapu Industrial Zoning
Waipa District Council has finally settled on 15 ha of Industrial land between Hannon Road to the west, SH 1B (Victoria Road to the east, Hautapu Cemetery to the north and the proposed Cambridge Bypass to the south. This area will not be serviced and will have the status "Industrial Zone (unserviced)".
The area of land between Peake Road to the west, Hannon Road to the east, the existing Hautapu Industrial Zone and part of Hautapu Road to the north and the Cambridge Bypass to the south, is to be declared a "Deferred Industrial Zone".
The Fonterra owned Bardowie Farms area will be retained as "Rural Zoning".
These changes to the District Plan will be publically notified shortly under the usual RM Act processes.
See Council’s full
report
GCN 9-7-10
District Plan Change Workshops - June 2010
Nicklin Surveying & Resource Management attended the three workshop sessions. The Council has posted a summary of the discussions on their waipa2050 website and links to those documents are:
GCN 10-6-10
Summary of Proposed changes to Subdivision Rules
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Structure plans developed for new growth areas (this is how Cambridge North is being developed)
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Residential zone
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Ability to convert basements and additions to separate residential dwellings in residential zone (then separate titles?)
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Creation of outdoor living space
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Sunlight access (change to recession planes)
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New provisions for rainwater and grey water tanks on new lots
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3-storey “compact housing” on sites over 3000m2 adjacent to public open space
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Change building setback requirements (3-4m front yard, still 5m for garages)
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3m between adjacent houses but ability to erect buildings on boundaries with neighbours consents
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Increase minimum lot size to 600m2 (drastic change this)
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Rural residential
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Create new rural residential zone (it is currently a rural zone “overlay”)
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subdivision can only occur by titles transferred from the surrounding rural area
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Restrict non-residential activities (status quo?)
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Greater yards and controls adjacent to rural zone
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Average lot size 2500m2 (status quo)
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Requirement for advanced wastewater treatment systems
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Rural
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Preparation of “Land Development Plans” where farming land-use changes
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Controls over transport, erosion and sedimentation associated with forestry harvesting
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Rural subdivision
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Increase 25ha general farm lot size to 40ha (the implications of this change are fairly drastic)
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Ability to amalgamate and transfer titles (in addition to the current TDR Rules?)
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Control transferable titles to poor soil types only (lower than Class 3 other than 3e), rural residential areas and some locations in towns
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“Environmental protect lots” (EPL’s) continue much as at present
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Remove ability to subdivide surplus housing
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Remove ability to subdivide due to topographical constraints
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Increase qualifying time for “retirement lots” (LAH’s) from 15 to 25 years and to limit them to 40ha properties.
As you can see, there are some fairly drastic changes proposed. Although the Council has released them as "discussion" documents, it is clear the direction they are heading - subdivision is just going to be so much more difficult in both the urban and rural areas. You have the right to comment on any of these proposals. The details are shown in the discussion document links below and your comments can be filled in and sent back to them.
Updated GCN 29-5-10
Subdivision Rule Change discussion documents
As part of the District Plan Review, under the guise of “Waipa2050”, Waipa District Council has released their discussion documents. Mixed in with these documents are their ideas about changes to the subdivision Rules.
We urge all clients involved in land development to study these documents prior to 15 June, as they indicate the way Council sees the future development of the District. The discussion documents relate to various development matters, not just subdivision issues.
The Council are requesting feedback on these documents. See
www.waipa2050.co.nz. We have copies of these documents in our offices for your perusal.
The discussion documents are split into nine areas:
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Future growth
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Commercial
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Residential
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Rural residential
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Rural
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Rural subdivision
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Industrial
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Reserves
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Mineral extraction
Clicking on any of the links above will open the relevant document.
Updated GCN 29-5-10
Waipa District Council Subdivision Rules Changes?
What is happening out there? We have had several enquiries recently from people who have heard a rumour that “the subdivision rules are changing”.
It is all to do with the prior growth Strategy prepared by Council and relates to the balance of rural and urban living. It appears that the Council are looking a restricting rural subdivision and may be looking at changes to the various subdivision “entitlements” that are available via the subdivision rules and apply to many Waipa District rural properties. At least one Council Planning staff is working on this proposal.
These entitlements result from several subdivision rules:
- 15 year long association lots
- 25 ha minimum subdivision area
- Transferable development rights
We understand Councils thinking on these issues is to extend the long association lot requirement to 25 years, probably do something with the 25 ha entitlements (increase to 40, 60 or 80 ha?) and some changes to transferable development rights relating to similar “land for land”. It is all a bit vague, but that is all we know at this stage.
We also suspect there will be some changes to the environmental protection lot Rules which may effect many rural people.
The Council is preparing a discussion document and will be holding “open days” in November 2009 to extract public opinion before any formal rule changes are notified in 2010. A meeting will be held with local surveyors soon, so please watch this space for updates.
Updated GCN 1-11-09
Transferable Development Rights available! - Waipa District only
We have access to a collection of transferable development rights (TDR's) from several properties in Maungatautari. These are available for immediate use by clients wishing to carry out a subdivisions in a complying area of the rural zone.
If you are contemplating at subdivision with a TDR, login into our "Members" page and request our "TDR - What it means" document and we will sent it to you by post. Alternatively, contact this office and we can email a copy to you. The TDR rules in the Waipa District are difficult to understand and the document above has been written to simplify and explain the process.
There are likely to be around 113 TDR's available from the District Plan Change for on the fencing and access agreements to the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust. This Plan Change is currently going through the public notification stage.
Updated GCN 15-2-09
New Waipa District Council Standards
Waipa District Council, in conjunction with other District Councils in this area, have adopted the Hamilton City Council (HCC) Development Manual as the base document that can be used to replace the various individual engineering standards relating to subdivisions. i.e. entranceway diagrams, type of service connections, specific construction requirements etc.
However, there is a District Council Supplement where each Council specifies where their standard differs from the HCC one! It is all pretty complicated and a bit of a mess in our opinion. At this stage, until there is a Council resolution formally adopting these as "the standard", the current "Blue" and "Pink" Waipa standards along with the Rural COP, Waipa District Council can not refer to the new standard in any subdivision conditions imposed.
Currently, we are unsure of the status of the new HCC standard insofar as Waipa District Council is concerned.
GCN 15-2-09
NZsurv pages Updated
NZsurv, a land surveying calculation program for the HP48G+ and GX calculators, marketed by Nicklin Surveying & Resource Management, has updated content on this site - click here.
NZsurv is still going strong and whilst designed for an HP48GX, there is a "lite" version available for HP48G and G+ models.
GCN 15-2-09
LandOnLine - progress 2009
LandOnLine has been with us for over a year now and all land transfer surveys must be processed with it. All new surveys are now submitted electronically into LandOnLine and has considerable benefits for our clients in terms of survey plan approval times. LandOnLine is accessed via the Internet and it's speed varies depending on the local load and connection speed. These are the only real problems we have found with LandOnLine. See an introduction to LandOnline here.
GCN 15-2-09
Waipa District Council - New stormwater controls on subdivision
Over the last several years, Waipa DC engineering staff have been evolving new controls on stormwater for subdivisions. This has resulted from the influence of staff from other territorial local authorities, a requirement of Environment Waikato’s “General Authorisation” for stormwater flows into the Waikato River and a general “raising of the bar” over stormwater issues. This has resulted in a policy for a stormwater management Plan (SWMP) to be prepared and submitted for all subdivisions.
The basic requirement for a "1 into 2" residential subdivision is that the Council will allow the greenfields flow (undeveloped site) to run to the kerb or to a reticulated system (where the system has the capacity). All flows up to that generated by a storm with an average return interval of 10 years (10yr ARI), must be disposed of on-site by soakage. Where soakage is poor, a combination of soakage and retention is required. Retention could be by water tanks attached to side of dwelling, rain gardens or shallow temporary ponds – a wide variety of solutions are possible. For storms over 10yr ARI severity, an overland flow path must be identified or provided to enable stormwater to run to the road or via natural channels without impacting on other residential dwellings or activities.
A SWMP creates significant work and costs when preparing a subdivision application and may result in the need for a Chartered Profession Engineer to be involved. If a satisfactory SWMP can not be provided, the Council may refuse the subdivision.
19-2-09 GC Nicklin
