New rules governing Dunedin's rural land aims to protect the city's most productive land. Land zoned rural will now be split into seven different zones to reflect those differences, Mr Bathgate said. ''What we did end up with was the development of 15ha lifestyle blocks which isn't really a productive farm unit which didn't help with fragmentation of productive land.'' Other changes included changes to the clearance of native vegetation and what activities were allowed on rural land without the need for consent. As many of the city's wildlife and conservation attractions were located in rural zoned land, it made sense to allow that sort of activity, Mr Bathgate said.

Source: Otago Daily Times November 06, 2018 17:01 UTC