Iwi-influence move weighed

Jean-Paul Gaston

Councillors will have a second attempt today at hearing a proposal to drop the Rotorua Lakes Council's statutory hearings committee and replace it with a new policy committee and consent hearings panel.

Councillors rejected the first report presented to them at a meeting on August 5 due to a lack of information and concerns regarding costs, and agreed to "park" the proposal until council staff supplied more detail.

The proposed changes would do away with the statutory hearings committee and replace it with two separate bodies, both of which would give Te Arawa iwi influence in planning and land-use decisions taken in line with the Resource Management Act.

In his report to councillors, the council's strategy and partnerships group manager Jean-Paul Gaston said the new approach also intended to meet the council's commitment to involve Te Arawa in decision-making and to reflect good practice identified by the Ministry for the Environment.

The proposal could create a panel of up to 10 which would take over responsibility for resource-consent hearings. Panel members would be jointly recommended by the council and iwi.

The other arm of the council's planning and land-use process, a three-person committee to decide on policy, would be made up of two councillors and one iwi-appointed commissioner.

Mr Gaston said a cap of $160 plus GST an hour for hearings commissioners would be put in place and that other councils, such as Hamilton, had found the system worked well and was more cost effective.

The council meeting will be held in the Council Chamber from 9.30am and is open to the public.

Councillors will also discuss proposals to reduce the number of councillors from 12 to 10, introduce a new rural community board and a trial of online voting at the next election in 2016, as reported in yesterday's Rotorua Daily Post.

The agenda is available at www.rdc.govt.nz.

The proposal

* Resource Management Act (RMA) arrangements to support Te Arawa involvement
* The current Statutory Hearings Committee to be dissolved
* Could see the establishment of a new RMA Policy Committee
* Could see the establishment of a panel of council-approved independent hearings commissioner