Our new office at 180 High Street is now open.
We began this journey in 2019, when the Minister for the Environment asked the Otago Regional Council to prepare a new Regional Policy Statement and Land and Water Regional Plan. At that time, the existing planning rules and regulations were no longer deemed adequate to provide protection for Otago’s waterways and surrounding environment.
Between 2020 and 2022 we engaged with our community around the visions and values people wanted for our waterways and the land affecting them in this new, more in-depth Plan. We also spoke with communities about actions that would help us reach positive environmental outcome. These outcomes were that Otago's freshwater and land activities need to be:
Under the Resource Management Act 1991, Regional councils are required to involve communities and tangata whenua when developing regional plans.
In the first round of community engagement to inform the development of the draft LWRP, we wanted to find out which waterbodies (lakes, rivers, streams, wetlands) are most important to Otago communities, what people value most about them, and what characteristics of waterbodies matter most. More than 560 people gave feedback, with the strongest values being:
Other values included:
Thank you to everyone who provided feedback or came along to one of the community meetings to tell us what you want for land and water resources in our region.
The Manuherekia Rohe community is one of the first we worked with to develop a preferred approach to water and land management. We prioritised this area (along with the Arrow and Cardrona catchments) because it had many expiring deemed permits and policy work had already been done.
We consulted the community to identify important values and develop objectives and limits for waterways in the Manuherekia.
We sought feedback on five scenarios for managing water in the Manuherekia, and received more than 1,000 submissions supporting a range of flow options for the river.
The scenarios were developed with input from the Manuherekia Reference Group, which had representatives from the Manuherekia Catchment Group, the Department of Conservation, Forest and Bird, Central Otago District Council, Fish and Game, the Central Otago Environmental Society, Southern District Health Board and ORC.
Following consultation, a proposed approach was presented to ORC Councillors in August 2021. ORC Councillors requested that more science work be done. ORC science staff are continuing to study the catchment, but the proposed management approach will be reviewed in light of the new resource management legislation and forthcoming changes to national direction.
View the May 2021 Manuherekia Management Scenarios consultation document.
View the Upper Lakes staff presentation here.
View the summary report of the Upper Lakes feedback received
Between October and December 2022, we returned to the community to present options for managing water and land in each FMU or rohe and achieving the things valued about waterways in each area.
Information was shared about the current state of rivers and waterways
We also discussed possible environmental outcomes for the waterways in each area, the actions needed to get there, as well as the Government's national approach.
Thank you to everyone who provided feedback or came along to one of the community meetings to tell us what you want for land and water resources in our region.
View the Catlins presentation.
View the Dunedin & Coast presentation.
View the Dunstan presentation.
View the Lower Clutha presentation.
View the North Otago presentation.
View the Roxburgh presentation.
In the final round of community consultation, we went back to communities across Otago to discuss region-wide suggested new rules and regulations on a variety of topics, including:
Some new rules and regulations for individual FMUs/rohe were also suggested.
These included:
Thank you to everyone who provided feedback or came along to one of the community drop-ins to tell us what you want for land and water resources in our region.
A region-wide online discussion was held on Friday, 6 October. The ORC team and councillors presented to the public about the proposed direction of the Land and Water Regional Plan, giving people the opportunity to ask questions and give feedback on the draft Plan.
You can watch the recorded online discussion below, along with downloading the presentation slides (PDF) from the discussion.
An online discussion was held on Tuesday, 10 October. The ORC team and councillors presented to the public about the proposed direction of the Land and Water Regional Plan, especially for the Queenstown area. People were given the opportunity to ask questions and give feedback on the draft Plan.
You can watch the recorded online discussion below, along with downloading the presentation slides (PDF) from the discussion.
October 2023
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October 2023
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October 2023
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October 2023
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October 2023
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October 2023
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October 2023
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October 2023
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September 2023
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Council held many workshops during the creation of the draft Plan, a full list and links to each is here.
Originally scheduled to be considered for notification in October 2024, work on finalising the new Land and Water Regional Plan was paused while a new national framework on freshwater management was developed by the Government.
In the meantime, the current Regional Plan: Water for Otago and Regional Plan: Waste for Otago remain operative.