The Government has announced that the Resource Management Act 1991 will be replaced with two new acts that clearly distinguish between land-use planning and natural resource management, while putting a priority on the enjoyment of private property rights.
The Planning Act will focus on land-use planning and regulation.
It will enable the urban and infrastructure development New Zealand needs and will align with the Government’s Going for Housing Growth plan and the 30-year National Infrastructure Plan. It will create well-functioning urban and rural areas, including by separating incompatible land uses.
The Natural Environment Act will focus on the use, protection, and enhancement of the natural environment.
This includes our:
The dual act approach aims to reduce duplication and overlap between different laws and regulations, providing a clearer framework for managing effects on the natural environment.
Each new act will be supported by one set of national direction, to ensure it is implemented by councils and others in an efficient, nationally consistent way. This national direction will also provide guidance on how to resolve conflicts between competing priorities.
The new system will set environmental limits to protect natural resources and will provide more certainty around where development can and should be enabled.
It will narrow the scope of the resource management system to make clear what the system manages, and what regulation is covered by other legislation. It will define more closely what effects may be considered, while raising the threshold of effects that are permitted.
The effort or resources needed to manage an environmental effect will be made proportionate in the new system.
Introducing nationally standardised land-use zones will shift the focus of policy setting to a national level, enabling local decision making over things that matter.
Under the new resource management system there will be one combined plan per region. Each combined plan will include a spatial planning chapter, an environment chapter and planning chapters (one per territorial authority district).
Spatial plans will provide long-term, strategic direction to simplify and streamline the system.
The purpose of the environment chapter is to regulate natural resource use, and for the planning chapters it is to regulate land use and utilise standard zones.
This will result in a smaller number of plans overall, that will be simpler to use, and consistent across the country.
Resource consents will still be needed under the new system, but with the new nationally standardized land use zones and more national standards, there will be fewer resource consents required and more permitted activities. The Government are also proposing a smaller number of consent categories that will make it simpler and more certain for applicants.
Under the new Planning Act, people not directly affected by an application, would not be able to relitigate issues or object.
There will also be changes to the consent compliance and enforcement regime to reduce variations in how this important function is applied. The effectiveness of compliance and enforcement also varies, depending on the approach of the council and the resources they have available.
A national compliance and enforcement regulator will be set up to ensure a more consistent and effective approach. This will be done in a separate legislative process and not part of the two new laws.
The new regulator will reduce the lack of consistency in compliance and enforcement activities across regions and enable a more effective response to non-compliance.