The Queenstown Lakes District Council scenic rural roads variation has been publicly notified this week, after a two year process, CivicCorp principal policy Jenny Parker said.

The scenic rural roads variation was first publicly notified in September 2002 following extensive consultation, which included meetings in both Wanaka and Queenstown, and the production of a discussion document, sent to interested parties for comment, Ms Parker said.

The variation, as it was notified in 2002, deleted reference to 'scenic rural roads' from the District Plan based on the opinion that all roads within the District were important in terms of the views of the surrounding landscapes that were provided, Ms Parker said.

In addition, in order to protect those views, the variation introduced controlled activity rules for tree planting and structures, where they are located in close proximity to the road.

During the variation process 45 people lodged submissions to the variation, and 19 people lodged further submissions.

In July this year a hearings panel was convened to hear the submissions.

The full Council adopted the recommendation of the hearings panel on September 24.

"The variation reflects that the panel placed a lot of emphasis on the economic and aesthetic value of views to residents and visitors alike," Ms Parker said.

Some of the key provisions in the adopted and notified variation are:

• That all roads are important, and therefore references to scenic rural roads should be deleted.
• In order to protect the views from rural roads, the rules need to be strengthened to ensure that linear tree rows along roads that block views are not planted. Therefore, the rules allow clusters of trees (for any row of trees greater than 10 metres in length resource consent is required).
• Solid structures that block views require resource consent.
• Deer fences, and post rail/post and wire fences are still permitted.

"Anyone who made a submission can now lodge an appeal within 30 working days of the date of notification," Ms Parker said.

ENDS

For further information please contact Jenny Parker 03 442 9794.

By: Kiri