20 July 2021
Media: NZME (Rotorua Daily Post and BOP Times)
Topic: Commercial building consents
Enquiry
I am writing a story about some council consents information you sent through to one of my colleagues.
It would be greatly appreciated if you could respond to these two questions before 12pm today.
- Could the council provide attributable, anecdotal comments about:
- The number of commercial consent applications being processed this month. Is it busy or not?
- Are there many consent applications being made around earthquake strengthening?
- We remember there being one page on the council website which stated the total amount of residential and commercial consents issued each month. However we can no longer find it. Would you be able to provide us with a URL? Or does this page no longer exist?
Response
The following information was provided:
The majority of our work at the moment relates to residential building work with commercial consents accounting for approximately 8% of the 57 building consents currently being processed.
There are not a lot of earthquake strengthening projects being lodged. They tend to be few and far between.
Re: the webpage. We stopped using that page some time ago due to the lack of traffic going to that page. Usually we only get requests from RDP for that type of info so we send it directly when the reporters ask for it.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Media: Stuff
Topic: Death in Government Gardens
Enquiry
Dropping you a line to ask for some comment re the Gov Gardens hotpool body recovery?
- Are you able to tell me when council was notified?
- Also will the Gardens be subject to any form of rahui?
Response
The following information was provided:
Council was notified around 10am.
A karakia was carried out by Reverend Tom Poata.
A rahui is in place until midnight, Thursday 22 July 2021.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Media: Local Democracy Reporter
Topic: Significant Natural Areas (SNAs)
Enquiry
I am working on a story about Significant Natural Areas and have some comments to provide to the council and mayor for right of reply if desired.
Can the council please clarify if McKenzie's statement that half of his farm is an SNA is true and also if it is true the SNAs on his land were designated by aerial map alone.
For that purpose - his farm is at 289 Kapukapu Rd, Kaharoa.
The deadline for right of reply is 3pm please. This is a hard deadline.
COMMENTS
Lachlan McKenzie claims half of his 390 hectare farm has become a Significant Natural Area.
Of that, 50ha includes cypress trees, a North American species.
McKenzie says the council "looked at an aerial map and said it was a native" and didn't visit the sites.
"It's land theft by legislation."
He preferred the QEII voluntary system as it instilled "pride in the farmer" and was a partnership approach, but Significant Natural Areas provided "no choice, no discussion".
"We have to empower the farmer to do the right thing. You cannot control the people with a big sledgehammer."
He wanted the Government to come and talk to him and other farmers about their land, provide help to control pests and weeds or "come and buy it off me".
He also wanted Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick and Rotorua councillors to advocate for farmers to central government, conveying their feelings about Significant Natural Areas and the National Policy Statement on Indigenous Biodiversity.
Response
Reporter was informed the mayor was off sick and the relevant spokesperson from the council organisation was in an all-day meeting so we would not be able to meet the deadline set by the reporter. He was provided with the following information regarding the property at 289 Kapukapu Rd:
From having an initial look into this, without being able to confirm the exact parcel of land Mr McKenzie is referring to, information from our reports show the property at 289 Kapukapu Rd is approximately 25% SNA (21.5ha of 88.5ha).