Otago Regional Councillors voted in a meeting yesterday to adopt the Proposed Regional Policy Statement for Otago for notification on 26 June. Although staff recommended that it be held in a public-excluded session, Councillors elected to hold the meeting in public, and a recording will be made available online.

The Council is enormously thankful to all those who have had input into this new Regional Policy Statement. It has come together in a dramatically shortened timeframe, thanks to the hard work, collaboration, and creativity of those involved. Staff, iwi, and community representatives on reference panels devoted considerable time and energy to getting us to this stage. The product of their labour is a fit for purpose Regional Policy Statement that gives clear direction on the future management of Otago’s natural and physical resources.

The next step will be public notification on Saturday, 26 June, at which point the Proposed Regional Policy Statement will become available to view, and the public will be invited to share their feedback by making a submission by 3 September. We’ll be sharing more information about where and how to do this closer to that time.

Council also resolved that the new Regional Policy Statement is also a freshwater planning instrument, meaning it will go through the freshwater planning process introduced to the RMA last year.

The RPS notification paper can be viewed here.

The video recording of yesterday’s meeting can be viewed online.