The strategy itself has a number of guiding principles, one of which is that "the productive value of its soil and water resources are recognised and provided for, and sustainable use is promoted".
However as the plan circulates the councils for review it has been raising enough concern among their ranks - about its effectiveness, protection of soils, and timing - for two councils to delay signing off on the document.
While the strategy is shared by the councils, Hastings District faces a tension others don't as the city was built on "some of the best soils in the world", Hastings mayor Lawrence Yule said.
"That's why HPUDS and how we manage the Heretaunga plains is really important," he said. "We are the fruit bowl of Australasia, we need to protect our productive interest, but it can't be at any cost."
Mr Yule said while it was important to protect the region's soils, "you also need to give [people] housing options that they prefer, that they like, and they want to be in".
While there were some developments in Hastings built on highly productive land - such as Lyndhurst- Mr Yule said council's approach over the past decade had been trying to develop lower value land, while protecting the high quality land.
He cited the recently approved Omahu Rd, where the "poorer land" next to the road had been developed, while the "good land" behind this was left out.
Napier mayor Bill Dalton echoed Mr Yule, saying that balancing the tension was "never easy", but that was what HPUDS was for.
Earlier this week Napier City Council became the first to sign off on the HPUDS 2016 review. It cannot be adopted until all three councils have approved it.
In the past Mr Dalton said nothing had been done to limit suburban sprawl, meaning some housing developments had been built on Hawke's Bay's most fertile lands - but through HPUDS councils were ensuring productive land was protected.
"As far as I'm concerned there is no such thing as a perfect tool for these things, but HPUDS is as close as we get to it."
The mayor said council had an "absolute responsibility" to protect as much productive land as possible, and believed HPUDS was "the only weapon we've got at the moment".
"Everybody who owns a few acres on the outskirts of town wants to develop it into housing, because that's where they can maximise capital profits," he said.
"But that's where the tension is between maximising capital profits by developing land once for housing and the ongoing ability of that land to deliver crops and produce for years to come."
While both mayors were agreed that protecting fertile soils was important, so was providing housing to accommodate Hawke's Bay's growth.
As well as current demand in the market, projections for population and household growth over the next 30 years show this demand for Hawke's Bay land and housing is not expected to slow.
In fact projections in this area have increased significantly since the original strategy was published.
It was projected that household growth would require an additional 2500 houses - this has now risen to nearly 11,000 being required before 2045.
And the expected population growth has more than doubled from 8000 to 16,455.
Mr Dalton noted with more people flocking to the region Hawke's Bay was facing increasing demand for housing.
"We all want growth, and growth means more people, and more people means more houses so that's the reality of life," he said.
He said Napier now needed to be looking to other cities, and looking more at high rise apartment living, and higher density living - especially with Hawke's Bay's rapidly ageing population.
"The days of the old quarter acre paradise sprawling all over the district are gone."
Mr Yule said if people believed the productive capacity of the Heretaunga soils was more important than housing, new residential zones would have to be moved onto lower quality flat land, or into the Havelock Hills.
Mr Yule said there was nothing stopping council from moving into the hills, other than the expense of serving developments there.
He added people wanted to live near established areas, with easy access to existing amenities and infrastructure.
He said they were working to meet the strategy's target of 60 per cent intensification within existing areas.
The strategy states that development was expected to transition from current development allocation levels to be divided by 2045 as 60 per cent intensification, 35 per cent greenfield, and five per cent of population in rural areas.
Mr Yule said they were working to ensure this target could be met - such as providing incentives like "dramatically reduced development levies for infill development".
"If you drive around Hastings at the moment you'll see lots of houses being moved into back sections ... it's not something that's as visible in terms of a brand new subdivision but there is now a lot of it going on.
"If the demand for the house and the value of it is there, people will subdivide existing land and build infill."
The strategy had identified specific areas for greenfields development, and sought to limit development "largely" to these areas.
"To protect the versatile land resource of the Heretaunga Plains, some tension in greenfields land supply is considered necessary to encourage the intensification of development within the existing urban areas to ensure that the 60 per cent intensification target can be met by 2045."
