Papakāinga DevelopmentTe whakawhanake papakāinga

While the District Plan provided for papakāinga development on Māori land (view District Plan section Part C - District Wide Activity - Chapter 21.1), only three applications for papakāinga succeeded. It was identified that the three agencies shared the same objective of assisting Māori to reoccupy their ancestral land, but their respective processes did not harmonise and this presented obstacles to applicants.

The agencies agreed to harmonise their processes through the production of the Papakāinga Development Guide (see the 'related documents' section at the bottom of this page).

Māori land accounts for 22 per cent of the district’s land, so there is potential for many papakāinga developments to occur. It is hoped that the effect of the guide will be an increase in Resource Consent applications for papakāinga.

The guide is laid out as a workbook to cover the stages of a papakāinga development project: Whānau (getting the approval and viable relationships within the collective ownership of land); whenua (the legal forms under which the land may be occupied); and whare, (the consents required – for example building and waste water management).

The guide won a New Zealand Post Excellence Award at the 2008 Local Government New Zealand conference. Since then it has been in demand throughout the country – by Māori, academics, and other councils.

For more information on papakāinga development contact Council.