Share your voice

We asked you for feedback on the proposal to revoke the Cultural and Recreational Facilities Bylaw 2012.

We proposed to revoke the Bylaw as we can continue to use our current management processes to minimise offensive behaviour at Council cultural and recreational facilities and will respond to offensive behaviour with existing processes, procedures, and legislation.

We received 14 responses.

10 respondents supported Council’s proposal to revoke the bylaw and four did not support the proposal.

Respondents who supported revoking the bylaw felt the reasons Council provided (such as there are other methods of dealing with nuisance behaviour) were sufficient. 

Respondents that did not support Council’s proposal included the perception that library staff do not have the means to deal with nuisance behaviour.

Your feedback was presented to the Community and Natural Environment Committee on 22 February 2024. The committee agreed to revoke the bylaw. 

The bylaw will be revoked from 1 May 2024. 

Council will continue to make our Cultural and Recreational Facilities safe for everyone using existing policies and processes. 

Private Plan Change 15 – Tuumata: further submissions

Private Plan Change 15 – Tuumata was open for submission in April and May this year. A summary of submissions and copies of original submissions were made available in June and July. Further submissions for Private Plan Change 15 reopened in October to allow people to submit on an original submission not included in the summary of submissions.

Tainui Group Holdings (TGH) requested a change to Hamilton’s District Plan to rezone about 68ha in Ruakura to allow for housing. Plans have been made for about 1200 homes.

More than a third of the 68ha site will be set aside as wetlands and swales to manage stormwater. Provision has also been made for a shopping centre and a supermarket. The Tuumata block is located between the Fifth Avenue extension and the AgResearch campus.

The proposed changes to the District Plan include:

• Changing the zone from Ruakura Industrial Park to General Residential to provide for a range of housing options.
• Changing the zone from Ruakura Industrial Park to Business 6 to allow for a neighbourhood centre.
• Correcting a zoning anomaly that applies to Council-owned land – a small strip adjoining the area in the south will be rezoned from Ruakura Industrial to Knowledge Zone.
• Incorporation of a new structure plan for the Tuumata Residential Precinct.
• Including additional rules to implement the Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS).

Submissions to Plan Change 15 were opened from 18 April to 17 May 2023.

Further submissions to Plan Change 15 were open from 12 June to 10 July 2023 and again between 25 October and 10 November 2023.

We received four submissions and five further submissions. There is now a formal process to follow under the Resource Management Act 1991.

Hearings for Plan Change 15 are due to be held in 2024.

A panel of commissioners will consider all the submissions and make recommendations to Council on the final plan change in 2024.

Keep up-to-date on the plan change here: https://hamilton.govt.nz/property-rates-and-building/district-plan/plan-changes/plan-change-15/

We asked you for feedback on the proposal to update the Open Space Provision Policy 2018.

Council proposed to make changes to this policy to reflect the changing urban environment of Hamilton Kirikiriroa.

The key changes proposed were:

• to reduce the walking distance provision targets for neighbourhood and community parks within medium and high-density residential areas
• the inclusion of a policy direction requiring Council to seek opportunities to acquire park land early within greenfield and emerging areas where possible.

We received 21 responses. All submissions were made by individual respondents.

More respondents agreed with Council’s proposal to reduce walking targets (16, 76%) than those who disagreed (4, 19%). One respondent did not leave an answer.

When asked about the inclusion of a policy direction requiring Council to acquire park land early where possible, more respondents agreed with the proposal (17, 81%), than those who disagreed (3, 14%) with Council’s proposal. One respondent did not leave an answer.

Based on your feedback of the proposed policy, the amendments were added and the policy was adopted with only two minor additional changes as suggested by Elected Members (made for clarification – and not considered significant).