RPS hearings to wrap up soon

More than a month of hearings on the Proposed Regional Policy Statement (RPS) for Northland – arguably the region’s most important planning document – will close at the beginning of July.

By the time the hearings period wraps up, more than 300 people will have stepped forward to support their submissions on the Proposed RPS before a panel of three independent commissioners.

The RPS sets out how our natural and physical resources are to be managed.

The end of the hearings marks another important statutory step towards completion of a new RPS which has been in development for over three years.
The independent commissioners’ panel will now gear up to deliberate and make its final recommendations to the Northland Regional Council.

Once council makes its final decisions on the new RPS – currently anticipated to be in September this year – a standard 20-day appeal period occurs. Areas of the RPS which aren’t appealed during that period become ‘operative’ – that is, take effect legally.

■ To find out more go online to www.nrc.govt.nz/newRPS