A hearing date has been set for the Hastings District Council to consider an application to designate land for a new school site on Bennett Rd, Waipatu.
The 3ha site had been proposed as a new location for Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Te Wananga Whare Tapere o Takitimu and associated kohanga reo.
Currently located at Albert St in Hastings, the kura had become too small to cater for the growing number of families wanting to enrol their children, and the latest request followed the rejection of an alternative site at the former Arataki Camping Ground due to odours from Te Mata mushroom farm.
In September last year, the Minister of Education lodged a Notice of Requirement (NoR) to designate the Bennett Rd land for educational purposes.
The hearing was set to begin on February 7, and it was recommended that the new designation be confirmed subject to conditions, with a 10-year lapse period.
These conditions included providing plans showing the configuration of the development, proposed landscaping and buffer zones, how stormwater and traffic would be managed, and compliance with noise limits.
The lapse period of 10 years was requested to reflect the long-term nature of the project and to allow for flexibility in terms of timing for the project to start.
The site was currently designated as plains production zone, and the NoR was said to be generally consistent with the Hawke's Bay regional policy statement and proposed Hastings district plan (2015), with any adverse affects likely to be avoided through conditions and mitigation measures that had been proposed.
In the planner's report a no-complaints covenant was recommended to protect rural activities already operating in the area.
This covenant would recognise that agricultural management practices such as agri-chemical spraying, poultry farming, composting operations and other activities could occur in the surrounding area, and that where these were carried out in accordance with district plan requirements, no proceedings could be brought to try and limit or modify those practices.
The NoR did not contain any detailed information about the development, such as building locations, sports fields, school access and parking, with such details set to be made available after the education designation was confirmed.
As well as the designation, further resource consents for drilling a new water bore and for soil contamination assessment and management would be sought at a later date.
About 90 people made submissions on the designation request, mostly in support, and more than 60 submitters had requested to speak at the hearing.
The NoR application said the Minister aimed to have the kura open on the site in 2020.