The Kawerau community has until the end of this month to have their say on a District Plan change.

The plan change is to re-zone land introduced to the Kawerau district from Whakatāne district following boundary changes in 202.

Kawerau District Council is now consulting with the public and affected landowners about the draft Plan Change 5. Although the Government issued a "plan stop" directive in August 2025, Kawerau District Council successfully applied for an exemption to continue this work, which was approved in December last year.

Conversations and consultation has been carried out with the registered land owners of all the land parcels which were part of the boundary reorganisation.

The draft plan seeks to create a new Māori purpose zone to ensure that landowners such as Māori trusts, who own this land, can utilise it for a variety of purposes that meet their long-term aspirations.

The transferred land also contains areas identified in the Whakatāne District Plan as Significant Natural Areas and the council is legally required to include these in its plan.

Submissions close at 5pm on April 30.