Brent Trail Managing Director Surveying Services Ltd

Following the settlement of an appeal to the Environment Court, it is now much tougher to subdivide a lifestyle block.

In an interesting turn of events, the Waikato District Council was forced to increase the parent lot size to 20ha in order to settle the appeal by the Waikato Regional Council. The district council proposed allowing one lifestyle block to be cut off a qualifying property that was at least 6ha.

While many protested and asked council to return to two lifestyle blocks per title, regional council took another view. It appealed the district council's decision, requesting a much larger parent block; and won the day.

This is an example of what can pop out of a district plan review, following the public process. It was a rule that neither existed previously, nor was proposed by council. And this is the reason I encourage all interested citizens to get involved in these district plan changes.

I believe this rule will have a limited life – the writing is on the wall for lifestyle lots to disappear completely around Hamilton. Soon you will need to start with 40ha, if you are allowed at all.

Those involved in this process could see this coming and would have been foolish to not take action. An example of this is an application we made. The original property was 7ha in size and we obtained approval for one small lot containing the existing house and a balance lot with an area of 5.4ha. This scenario is now non-complying and, in my view, would no longer receive approval. Now we have the resource consent, we are applying to change the relative size of those lots in accordance with a change to the minimum lot size agreed at mediation.

The round of district plan reviews we have seen is now drawing to a close, with submissions closing on the Thames-Coromandel Plan on March 14. So if you have any interest in land subdivision, development of land, or building in this district, you should have a look at the proposed district plan. If there are aspects you object to, put in a submission; but equally if you do like what you see, put in a submission in support.

That way you will at least be informed and in a position to take the required action.

Waipa district has proposed major changes to its rural subdivision rules, restricting the number and size of subdivisions also. It has just completed a marathon of submission hearings and advised the decision will be released on May 30. So there is still time to apply for subdivision consent if you are affected by the proposals.

If you have any plans for subdivision in the future, or wish to lodge a submission and require advice, I'm happy to discuss the opportunities. So don't hesitate to give me a call.

Brent Trail, managing director of Surveying Services, specialises in resource consent applications for subdivisions across the Waikato and Bay of Plenty. For further information, call 0800 268 632 or email: btrail@surveyingservices.co.nz