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67: Contents of regional plans
or “Regional plans explain what a region wants to achieve and how it will do it.”
You could also call this:

“Regional plans can include rules that act like laws to help manage the environment and natural resources in an area.”

A regional council can make rules in a regional plan to carry out its functions and achieve the plan’s objectives and policies. These rules are as strong as regulations under the Resource Management Act, but if there’s a conflict, the regulation wins.

You can make rules to protect other people’s property from surface water effects during building work. These rules can be stricter than the building code.

When making a rule, the council needs to think about how activities might affect the environment.

Rules can be different for different parts of the region or for different types of effects from an activity. They can apply all the time or only at certain times. Rules can be specific or general, and they might require you to get permission for activities that could harm the environment.

If a rule is about water levels, water quality, air quality, or geothermal water, the plan can say how it affects existing permissions and how people with permissions can follow the rule over time.

When the government makes rules for coastal plans, the council has to tell people about it and make sure the rules are added to their plan copies.

Rules in coastal plans can’t allow dumping waste or things from ships, aircraft, or offshore structures, or burning waste in the sea without permission.

A rule can say that some contaminated land doesn’t have to follow the rule if it deals with how to fix or avoid environmental harm from hazardous substances, or if it treats the land as not contaminated for certain purposes.

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Next up: 68A: Regional coastal plan not to authorise aquaculture activities in coastal marine area as permitted activities

or “Rules for fish farming in the sea can't be automatically allowed without permission.”
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Part 5 Standards, policy statements, and plans
Local authority policy statements and plans: Regional plans

68Regional rules

  1. A regional council may, for the purpose of—

  2. carrying out its functions under this Act (other than those described in paragraphs (a) and (b) of section 30(1)); and
    1. achieving the objectives and policies of the plan,—
        1. include rules in a regional plan.

      1. Every such rule shall have the force and effect of a regulation in force under this Act but, to the extent that any such rule is inconsistent with any such regulation, the regulation shall prevail.

      2. Rules may be made under this section for the protection of other property (as defined in section 7 of the Building Act 2004) from the effects of surface water, which require persons undertaking building work to achieve performance criteria additional to, or more restrictive than, those specified in the building code as defined in section 7 of the Building Act 2004.

      3. In making a rule, the regional council shall have regard to the actual or potential effect on the environment of activities, including, in particular, any adverse effect.

      4. Repealed

      5. Repealed

      6. A rule may specify an activity as a restricted coastal activity only if the rule is in a regional coastal plan and the Minister of Conservation has required the activity to be so specified on the grounds that the activity—

      7. has or is likely to have significant or irreversible adverse effects on a coastal marine area; or
        1. occurs or is likely to occur in an area having significant conservation value.

          1. A rule may—

          2. apply throughout the region or a part of the region:
            1. make different provision for—
              1. different parts of the region; or
                1. different classes of effects arising from an activity:
                2. apply all the time or for stated periods or seasons:
                  1. be specific or general in its application:
                    1. require a resource consent to be obtained for an activity causing, or likely to cause, adverse effects not covered by the plan.

                      1. Repealed

                      2. Where a regional plan includes a rule relating to maximum or minimum levels or flows or rates of use of water, or minimum standards of water quality or air quality, or ranges of temperature or pressure of geothermal water, the plan may state—

                      3. whether the rule shall affect, under section 130, the exercise of existing resource consents for activities which contravene the rule; and
                        1. that the holders of resource consents may comply with the terms of the rule, or rules, in stages or over specified periods.

                          1. Where regulations have been made under section 360(1)(ha) deeming rules to be included in a regional coastal plan or proposed regional coastal plan, the relevant regional council shall, as soon as reasonably practicable after the date on which the regulations are made, revoked, or cease to apply to its region,—

                          2. give public notice of the fact that such regulations have been made or revoked or have ceased to apply, as the case may be, and in such detail as the council considers appropriate, generally describe the nature of any rules deemed to be included in the plan or proposed plan by those regulations; and
                            1. ensure that a copy of any regulations deeming rules to be included in the plan or proposed plan is annexed to, and appropriate annotations are made in, every copy of that plan or proposed plan that is under the regional council's control.

                              1. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this section, no rule of a regional coastal plan shall authorise as a permitted activity any of the following activities to which section 15A applies:

                              2. the dumping in the coastal marine area of any waste or other matter from any ship, aircraft, or offshore installation:
                                1. the dumping in the coastal marine area of any ship, aircraft, or offshore installation:
                                  1. the incineration in the coastal marine area of any waste or other matter in any marine incineration facility.

                                    1. Subject to subsection (9), sections 69 and 70(2) shall, with all necessary modifications, apply to the inclusion of rules in regional coastal plans about the dumping of waste or other matter as if every reference in those provisions to a discharge of a contaminant included a reference to a dumping of waste or other matter.

                                    2. A rule may exempt from its coverage an area or class of contaminated land if the rule—

                                    3. provides how the significant adverse effects on the environment that the hazardous substance has are to be remedied or mitigated; or
                                      1. provides how the significant adverse effects on the environment that the hazardous substance is reasonably likely to have are to be avoided; or
                                        1. treats the land as not contaminated for purposes stated in the rule.

                                          Notes
                                          • Section 68(1): amended, on , by section 29(1) of the Resource Management Amendment Act 2003 (2003 No 23).
                                          • Section 68(2A): replaced, on , by section 414 of the Building Act 2004 (2004 No 72).
                                          • Section 68(3): amended, on , by section 29(2) of the Resource Management Amendment Act 2003 (2003 No 23).
                                          • Section 68(3A): repealed, on , by section 29(3) of the Resource Management Amendment Act 2003 (2003 No 23).
                                          • Section 68(3B): repealed, on , by section 29(3) of the Resource Management Amendment Act 2003 (2003 No 23).
                                          • Section 68(4): amended, on , by section 29(4) of the Resource Management Amendment Act 2003 (2003 No 23).
                                          • Section 68(5)(e): replaced, on , by section 29(5) of the Resource Management Amendment Act 2003 (2003 No 23).
                                          • Section 68(6): repealed, on , by section 14 of the Resource Management Amendment Act 1997 (1997 No 104).
                                          • Section 68(7): inserted, on , by section 37(4) of the Resource Management Amendment Act 1993 (1993 No 65).
                                          • Section 68(8): inserted, on , by section 10 of the Resource Management Amendment Act 1994 (1994 No 105).
                                          • Section 68(9): inserted, on , by section 10 of the Resource Management Amendment Act 1994 (1994 No 105).
                                          • Section 68(10): inserted, on , by section 10 of the Resource Management Amendment Act 1994 (1994 No 105).
                                          • Section 68(11): inserted, on , by section 42 of the Resource Management Amendment Act 2005 (2005 No 87).
                                          • Section 68(11): amended, on , by section 57 of the Resource Management (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Act 2009 (2009 No 31).