November 21, 2007
New Zealand
New Zealand
Porirua City Council has notified a proposed change to its District Plan to provide specific rules around wind farms for any future applications that may be made within Porirua City boundaries.
“The Porirua District Plan was first drafted in 1992, when wind farms were not well known in New Zealand, so specific rules relating to wind farms were not included.
New Zealand is now looking for more renewable ways of generating power and as wind farm technology has become more advanced, more and more proposals are being put forward around the country,” says Sue Veart, General Manager of Strategy and Planning.
“This proposed plan change is intended to provide the Council with the means to assess potential local adverse effects of any wind farm proposal against the wider regional and national benefits of the electricity it might generate,” Ms Veart explains.
The most significant new rule is to make wind farms a discretionary activity, provided they are not proposed to be located within any of the city’s designated Landscape Protection Areas and that no part of a structure associated with a wind farm is located within 700 metres of another zone boundary (such as a recreational or suburban zone) or property boundary of a site not part of the wind farm site.
Wind farm proposals outside of these parameters would be regarded as a non-complying activity and would have to undergo a far more rigorous application process.
A copy of the Proposed Plan Change 7 – Wind Farms can be found on the Porirua City Council website www.pcc.govt.nz , at the Council’s offices in Cobham Court and Porirua City Library, Parumoana Street.
Members of the public are invited to make submissions on the proposed plan change. The deadline for submissions is 14 December 2007.
21 November 2007
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2007/11/21/wind-farm-plan-change-proposed/