Welcome to this update on the progress we've made so far this year towards creating a new resource management plan for the Tasman District.

The plan will replace our current resource management documents and be the blueprint for how we grow as a district, and use and care for our land, air, and water. We're naming the new plan Aorere ki uta, Aorere ki tai - Tasman Environment Plan and we want you to help shape it.

In this update, find out more about the mapping we've released as part of the 'Landscapes and Coastal Environment Projects', including details for feedback events happening across the District over the next two weeks. You can also learn more about how we're preparing to respond to climate change with our 'Spotlight on Coastal Management' story. Finally, read what we learned from our communities last year by accessing feedback submitted during our 10-week engagement period.

Ngā mihi nui,

Tasman District Council Policy Planning Team

As part of a project to safeguard our special places for future generations, Tasman District Council has released draft maps identifying Tasman District's Outstanding Natural Landscapes and Features, and a revised Coastal Environment area.

This work builds on community feedback about how valued landscapes in the Tasman District are and the mapping is required by national legislation.

It’s important for everyone to know that this work is not about stopping existing, legally established activities – it’s about safeguarding our valued landscapes and coast from specific future activities that would impact what makes them so special.

If you have questions or feedback about these projects, please join us for some kai and conversation at one of the feedback events we are hosting across the District over the next two weeks.

The events are an opportunity for landowners and interested people to meet with council planners and the authors of the Landscape Study and Coastal Environment Study to discuss local Outstanding Natural Landscapes (ONL), Outstanding Natural Features (ONF), and the revised Coastal Environment (CE). We had over 100 attendees at our Tākaka event yesterday.

If you own property within one or more of the draft areas, you should have already received an invitation to the events in the mail. However, an invitation is not required to attend - everyone is welcome to drop-in and talk to us about this work.

We are keen to hear your feedback on whether the area boundaries are in the right place and we will have jumbo maps available at the events to help with our conversations. We also want to learn about any current activities happening on the land that we might not be aware of and future plans you have for your land. What we learn will help with developing rules that are sensitive to landowner aspirations.

Find out more about this project, explore the maps, view event schedule, studies, and give feedback here.

Thank you to the 230 people who joined us for our series of live video presentations covering what the ONL, ONF, and CE areas mean, and how to get involved. Following the short presentations, the planning panel answered questions from audience. If you weren't able to make it to a live presentation, you can catch up on our Wednesday evening session below.

The impacts of climate change affect us all, and in Tasman we continue to experience the effects of significant weather and storm events. As part of the process to create the new Tasman Environment Plan, we’re working on a project to enable our Tasman Bay/Te Tai o Aorere and Golden Bay/Mohua communities to prepare for how we can respond to sea level rise and coastal hazards.

The coastal risk assessment released in December, along with our coastal hazards map viewer (2019), is available here.

As a Council, we are looking to better prepare our communities for the effects of ongoing changes to weather patterns and rising sea levels. This is because many of our land use planning, asset and infrastructure decisions that are made today have long lifetimes (e.g. subdivision - permanent; new houses - 80 to 100+ years; infrastructure pipes - 80 years; new roads 50 years; etc). The decisions we make today will affect our children, grandchildren and future communities.

This year, we will be working with local communities to discuss “what can we do about it” including identifying options for coastal management and ways we can improve community resilience over the short and long term. Winter event details will be available soon.

All of the feedback we received from our communities over October, November, and December last year is available to read here.

There were lots of great contributions including over 1,500 environmental and development opportunities and challenges raised.

There were some key themes in the feedback from our communities and we are currently working hard on options for the Tasman Environment Plan to respond in each area:

• Housing – Sustainable growth and safe, affordable places to live.
• Freshwater – Protecting the quality & quantity of the district’s freshwater.
• Transport – Support for a range of options for moving around the district.
• Biodiversity – Looking after natural habitats/controlling invasive species.

Thank you to everyone who took part in this first round of engagement.

We are also in close contact with our colleagues working on the Tasman District Council Long Term Plan and have read the submissions to that process. The Long Term Plan sets out what we're planning, how much it will cost, how we'll pay for it, and what it all means for rates and debt. Some of the submissions from the recent consultation are particularly useful for our work on the Tasman Environment Plan so we appreciate everyone who took the time to submit feedback.

We will continue to update you and seek your views as we progress our work on options to address environmental and development issues and opportunities in the Tasman District.