To date Council have: 

• Held public hui and virtual Q & A sessions to understand the issues, challenges and aspirations mana whenua face in developing Māori Land for papakāinga,
• Presented updates on the Plan Change at the Te Manawhenua Forums and sought advice from the Forum;
• Engaged with other stakeholders throughout the District including Federated Farmers and Hort NZ;
• Engaged with and sought advice from other government agencies and organisations, including Te Kooti Whenua Māori, Te Puni Kokiri, Waikato Regional Council and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency;
• Prepared and consulted on an Issues and Options Paper .
• Branding establishment prior to informal consultation.

The project team met with the Te Manawhenua Forum in December 2019 where it was resolved that the Issues and Options Paper would be accepted, and the preferred Option D would be adopted as the way forward in preparing the plan change. The Te Manawhenua Forum also resolved to establish a working group to help drive the plan change process within the community and to assist with preparing the provisions.

The path forward, Option D, is a combination of district-wide provisions and a Special Māori Purpose Zone, however the exact details of the provisions have not been determined yet. This will be the objective of the coming stages of the plan change process. As mentioned above, a working group is proposed to be established to help draft the Plan Change provisions.

The working group consists of: 

• A representative from each Iwi Authority within the District;
• A Te Manawhenua Forum representative;
• A representative from Te Kooti Whenua Māori, Te Puni Kokiri, and Waikato Regional Council; and 
• The Plan Change project team.