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Resource Management Act 1991

Standards, policy statements, and plans - National direction - National environmental standards

43D: Relationship between national environmental standards and designations

You could also call this:

“This explains how national environmental rules work with special land use plans, and which one is more important in different situations.”

When a national environmental standard is created, it doesn’t always override existing designations. If a designation is already in place when a standard is made, the designation stays in effect until it expires or its conditions are changed to fit the new standard.

If the conditions of a designation are changed to match a new standard, the standard applies to the changed parts but not to the parts that weren’t changed.

For designations that need an outline plan, a new national environmental standard takes priority if the outline plan hasn’t been completed when the standard is made.

If a new designation is made after a national environmental standard is in place, the standard takes priority over the designation.

You don’t have to follow a national environmental standard for a use that was allowed by a designation that has expired, as long as the effects of the use are the same or similar to what they were before the designation expired. This applies whether the standard was made before or after the designation expired.

Work that’s part of a designation doesn’t have to follow a national environmental standard if the work was done before the standard was made, and the designation was applied to the work after the standard was made.

When we talk about ‘conditions’ in this section, we’re also including any conditions about the physical boundaries of a designation.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM233323.

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Environment and resources > Conservation
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43C: Relationship between national environmental standards and water conservation orders, or

“Rules about which is more important: special water protection orders or national environmental rules for water”

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43E: Relationship between national environmental standards and bylaws, or

“Local rules can sometimes be stricter or more relaxed than national rules, depending on what the national rules say.”

Part 5 Standards, policy statements, and plans
National direction: National environmental standards

43DRelationship between national environmental standards and designations

  1. A designation that exists when a national environmental standard is made prevails over the standard until the earlier of the following:

  2. the designation lapses:
    1. the designation is altered under section 181 by the alteration of conditions in it to which the standard is relevant.

      1. If the conditions of a designation are altered as described in subsection (1)(b), the standard—

      2. applies to the altered conditions; and
        1. does not apply to the unaltered conditions.

          1. A national environmental standard prevails over a designation that requires an outline plan if, when the standard is made,—

          2. the designation exists; and
            1. no outline plan for the designation has completed the process described in section 176A.

              1. A national environmental standard that exists when a designation is made prevails over the designation.

              2. A use is not required to comply with a national environmental standard if—

              3. the use was lawfully established by way of a designation that has lapsed; and
                1. the effects of the use, in character, intensity, and scale, are the same as or similar to those that existed before the designation lapsed; and
                  1. the standard is made—
                    1. after the designation was made; and
                      1. before or after it lapses.

                      2. Work under a designation is not required to comply with a national environmental standard if the work has come under the designation through the following sequence of events:

                      3. the work is made; and
                        1. the standard is made; and
                          1. the designation is applied to the work.

                            1. In this section, conditions includes a condition about the physical boundaries of a designation.

                            Notes
                            • Section 43D: replaced, on , by section 29 of the Resource Management Amendment Act 2005 (2005 No 87).