Ōpōtiki District Council has identified four sites it would like to rezone as industrial land and plans to carry out further technical assessments of the sites to build a case for a plan change.

However, it decided at a meeting on Tuesday that it would delay these assessments until it has sought approval for this work in a letter to Minister Chris Bishop who is overseeing Resource Management Act reforms.

Mr Bishop told councils last month that the Government would “stop councils wasting their officers’ time and their ratepayers’ money on plan changes in advance of the new planning system coming into force”.

Council staff informed councillors what was being proposed was only technical assessments rather than progressing to a plan change.

“By the time we have this work done we should have much more solid information from the national direction.

“The signals that have been coming (from central government) was that they want to stop plan changes that would prohibit growth, whereas growth-enabling plan changes are more likely to be excluded from the plan stop. We consider this is one of those.”

Two assessments, one for natural hazard risk and another for storm water engineering, were proposed for each of the four sites. The estimated maximum cost of these assessments was $200,000 and they were expected to take six to nine months to be completed.

Mayor David Moore suggested writing a proposal to the minister explaining what the council was trying to achieve and seeking permission.

“It might be worth doing that, just to see if he gives us a ‘yes, this is what getting back on track looks like’,” Mr Moore said.

The council agreed to going ahead with the assessments pending the minister’s approval.

If this was not received the matter would come back to a future meeting for a decision.

The areas being considered for industrial zoning include a 12.5- hectare block on the corner of Baird Road and State Highway 2, a 7ha area on Ōtara Road, and two blocks on Stoney Creek Road.

According to a report for the Eastern Bay Spatial Plan, between 10 and 14 hectares more industrial land will be needed around Ōpōtiki township over the next 30 years.

Council commissioned an industrial land analysis for the district which identified 14.8ha of industrial zoned land.

However, there were other factors that affected the availability of this land for development on the open market.

These included some areas being owned by businesses that may require them for their own future development or them being subject to ponding.

Consultancy firm MRC identified nine potential sites for industrial growth, eight of which are to the south of town and one on Baird Road.

Council staff held meetings with landowners and carried out site feasibility assessments, including the latest Bay of Plenty Regional Council flood modelling. Four sites were identified as having the highest potential.

Engagement with neighbouring landowners of the four sites has been met with mixed responses.

“While some landowners expressed concerns or opposition to industrial rezoning, others indicated support also demanding their own land to be considered for industrial use,” a report to council stated.

Mr Moore said he did have concerns about some of the neighbours objecting and that given the odour issues experienced by neighbours of mussel factory over the past summer he felt they had every right to object.

“It’s not only smells, it’s noise pollution and everything, so I totally support their right to object.”