A small critically endangered beetle species on the edge of Cromwell has impacted the town’s spatial plan, with any future development now required to protect their habitat.

An independent commissioner for Plan Change 18, by the Central Otago District Council, requested after a hearing in July, that staff work with the Department of Conservation (DOC) on a solution that protected the chafer beetle (Prodontria lewisi).

A large flightless beetle that lives underground, it only emerges at night in spring and summer to feed on plants and to breed, and is averse to light.

The 81ha reserve between Cromwell and Bannockburn was established in 1979, and is the only one in the world created solely for the protection of an invertebrate.

DOC partially opposed changes to the Cromwell Spatial Plan - known as PC18, a proposal to rezone 52ha of land from rural to industrial.

Expert witnesses, including an entomologist were brought in to provide evidence and requested a 25m setback on all property along the boundary of the reserve (around 2.5ha).

This was to mitigate any effects on the beetle’s habitat, including protection from shading and run off that might change the habitat, as well as street lighting as it nocturnal.

A joint witness statement between the two parties agreed on the removal of a 20-metre-wide strip from the proposed industrial resource area along 120m of the western boundary, adjoining the Chafer Beetle Nature Reserve - from Bannockburn Rd to north of the transmission pylon.

This strip will be retained as rural zoning, and an ‘indicative roading structure plan’ has also been put in place, that provides for a road reserve along the eastern boundary, to reduce the likelihood of impacts from any future subdivisions.

Principal policy planner Ann Rodgers said in her report to council, that providing a setback of 25m would have resulted in a loss of 2.5ha of developable land in addition to the 8% required to provide roading. 

“By utilising the setback area for roading purposes and designing the subdivision around indicative roading network, the potential loss of developable land is significantly less.”

She told the meeting that DOC was also going to set up an education area onsite for people, so they could understand what exactly is there.

The site was sensitive, and every time DOC carried out testing they were potentially destroying the beetles’ habitat, she said.