It is preparing an area plan in response to appeals to the Environment Court against Council decisions in 1999 to keep rural and low-density residential zoning over the study area.

The first phase of community consultation - to see how people imagine the study area developing if at all) and to gather any other information that may help the Council to decide if the study area is suitable for rezoning - has been completed.

The views of directly affected local landowners and residents were sought through written comments, followed by a series of five meetings which looked at how everyone's different views might be brought together to set out principles for any rezoning and development that may occur.

While there was no over-all consensus as to how people see the individual blocksand over-all study area developing, with divergent views as to where the "urban boundary" should be, some strong themes did emerge, including:

Useful comments were also made about possible mitigation measures if any rezoning and development did occur.

The views expressed will assist staff during the next step in the process - development and evaluation of possible future land use options. Later this year further views on these will be sought from the wider community, in order to identify the preferred future land-use option.