Council Agenda 26.9.18 Page 152 Information Report To: Mayor and Councillors From: Group Manager Planning and Environmental Services Date: Wednesday, 5 September 2018 File reference: Document: M 2446156 Portfolio holder: Cr Paul Milner Meeting date: Wednesday, 26 September 2018 Subject: Planning and Environmental Services Monthly Report – August 2018 Recommendation: THAT the report be received, and Summary Over this month we have the Customer Services Team featuring highly in the phone survey and Contact Centre industry awards. The Rule Plan Change progresses towards notification. There are brief updates on the Kaimai Windfarm and Project Martha Resource Consent applications. Strategic Planning are providing reports on annual planning for 2019/20; there is an update on the Kaiaua Pūkorokoro/Miranda Community Plan; along with the Treaty settlement readiness survey and an early look at the 2017/18 annual report and the revocation of the Council’s fire bylaws Customer Services Team August was a very busy month for Customer Services with Rates, Rate Rebates, and the “clean up” for dog registration There were 4280 calls offered, of which 3964 were managed successfully and 316 abandoned. The Service Level was not met at 73.18%. As at 31/08 565 Rate Rebates had been completed (47% of the total) The Customer Service Team Meeting focussed on testing for the move to Authority of our Cemeteries process. This went well, and will continue next month. It is hoped to go live with a much more efficient process shortly. The Customer Service Team was delighted to discover that Hauraki District Council had placed 4th in the Annual ALGIM Customer Service Experience survey, across all 78 Councils in NZ. The exercise involves multiple phone calls made to councils between the hours of 8am – 5pm, on week days (i.e. from Monday to Friday). Each council is asked a standard question and an assessment is made of the customer experience received. This result is a testament to the Page 1 of 9 Council Agenda 26.9.18 Page 153 hard work of the team in increase the quality of our interactions with our Customers over the course of the year. This Council was also a finalist in the public sector industry group awards at 2018 CRM/CCINZ Contact Centre Awards along with NZ Post and Christchurch City Council and NZ Post was the winner. Development 31 August 2018 Consents Issued 2017/18 2018/19 Year to date Building Consents 91 67 74% Subdivisions 13 12 92% Land Use 23 20 87% Designations - - -% Objections 3 - -% Certificates of Compliance - - -% Variations 3 4 133% Outline Plans - 3 300% Right of Ways - - -% Extension of Time - - -% Permitted Boundary Activity Certificates - 6 600% 42 45 107% LIMs 53 98 185% Consent activity is now showing a decrease in Building Consent numbers for the start of this financial year with an increase in the number of LIMS. Regulatory Services Team Planning Implementation Processing For the last month 9 subdivision and 17 land use resource consent applications were lodged and to date over that period all were processed within the statutory timeframe of 20 working days. District Plan Review The draft Growth Strategy and Waihi Zone Plan Changes continue with Iwi and key stakeholder consultation. Staff met with a representative of Ngāti Tamaterā to discuss the three District Plan projects. The Rule Plan Change is progressing towards public notification with a section 32 evaluation report being completed. Healthy Rivers plan change 1 At the time of writing, the opportunity to make further submissions to the Healthy Rivers Waikato Regional Plan change 1 is due to close on Monday 17 September 2018. A sub-regional position has been developed by the councils covered by the geographical area. HDC staff have supported these councils in their advocacy in so far as it is aligned to this Council’s own submission. Kaimai Windfarm Application Page 2 of 9 Council Agenda 26.9.18 Page 154 Council has received an application from Kaimai Wind Farm Ltd for resource consent to establish a wind farm on the hills south of Paeroa. At this time the application remains on hold in accordance with Section 92 of the RMA awaiting a significant amount of further information requested by both Hauraki District Council and Waikato Regional Council. The applicant has advised in writing that they intend to supply a package of information by 3 October 2018. A site visit for the technical staff is being organised and our Consents Planner has had discussions with with Liane Ngamane of Ngati Tamatera regarding the application. Building Team For the last month Council granted 44 Building Consent applications with 11 new dwellings last month and all except 2 were processed within the statutory timeframe. Of those 44 applications 5 consents did not require further information requests. General Dog Control Dog Control officers for past month have been issuing infringement notices to those dog owners with known unregistered dogs. Communications E aku manukura, tēnā koutou (to those held in high esteem, greetings). The Council embraced Te wiki o te reo Māori (Māori Language Week) from 10 – 16 September and set a goal to encourage and grow our te reo skills, not just during Māori Language Week, but on an ongoing basis. New public toilet signs with bilingual headings were installed at Ohinemuri Park, Karangahake Reserve, Ngatea Main Street and Waihi’s Victoria Park (aka Rocket Park). Over time, this will be extended to other Council signs throughout the district. Email signatures have also been changed to inlcude te reo job titles, libraries have added more te reo to their existing programmes such as Toddler Time, and our customer services teams have new bilingual name badges. Overall, staff really got behind the initiative and embraced the opportunity to strengthen their skills. Our efforts caught the attention of media and some staff and elected members appeared in a NZ Herald Local Focus video clip. In general we had a very positive response from our customers and the intention is to continue to encourage and support our learning in this area. In BAU, the communications officer has responded to a number of media enquiries including questions about the proposed Kaimai wind farm project and the Hauraki Coromandel Business Awards, helped with staff letters, and developed communication plans for the Council Mark project and rating revaluations. The Council’s instagram account is now active and so far has 102 followers. Key projects for the upcoming month include progressing the installation of the Welcome to the District signs and developing a marketing campaign around waste minimisation and recycling. Strategic Planning There are a number of newer planning and policy work items on the go. Many are covered in separate reports on this agenda, including: annual planning for 2019/20 an update on the Kaiaua Pūkorokoro/Miranda Community Plan Treaty settlement readiness survey an early look at the 2017/18 annual report revocation of the Council’s fire bylaws the Council’s CouncilMARK application. Smoke free environments policy Page 3 of 9 Council Agenda 26.9.18 Page 155 Council received a letter from the Waikato District Health Board encouraging it to develop a Smokefree Environments Policy. The letter notes that there are only 6 Councils in the North Island that do not have such a policy. A working party consisting of Councillor Spicer, Cr Leonard and Cr Daley has been formed to consider historical work by our Council on smokefree environments policy, the issues around developing such a policy and what it could cover. The working party will report back to Council with recommended actions in due course. Kaiaua Pūkorokoro/Miranda Community Plan Following a presentation to the Kaiaua Works and Service Joint Working Party at the end of August, a separate item will be presented to Council for its consideration at this meeting. Review of the various Parts of the Hauraki District Council Consolidated Bylaw The bylaw review working party are meeting with staff on cemeteries and wharves policy matters on 1 October 2018. TCDC & HDC Mangrove Management Bill As previously reported this Bill was referred to the Governance and Administration Select Committee in August 2017. Submissions on the Bill were considered by the Select Committee and subsequently ministry staff were directed by the Select Committee to do further work on the Bill’s draft provisions. Ministry staff met with HDC, TCDC and WRC as part of this process. The Bill is due to be reported back to the House on 19 October, 2018. Mining Matters Project Martha The notification of the applications occurred on Thursday 16 August and the closing date for submissions was Friday 14 September. The notification packs consisted of: Notification letter Copy of the public advertisement Copy of the Summary Assessment of Environmental Effects HDC submission form WRC submission form. Tentative dates have been set for the hearing being the two weeks commencing 12 November 2018 and the Waihi Memorial Hall has been tentatively booked. Other venues will be considered depending on the number of submissions received and the number of submitters who wish to be heard. Martha Drill Drives Projects (MDDP and MDDP2) During the past month the application for consent for an alternative breakthrough into the Pit (MDDP2) was processed and technical reports were received from the geotechnical and vibration advisors. The notification report (s95) and the Planners report (s42A) were prepared and submitted to Commissioner Watson for consideration. His decisions were that the consent would be non-notified and that consent be granted with conditions. Application for a crest raise on Tailings Storage Facility 2 (TSF 2) The hazard analysis review for this project was received from the Waikato Regional Council and this has meant that the staff report required by section 42A of the Act could be completed and forwarded to Commissioner Watson for his consideration and decision-making.