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235: Creation of esplanade strips by agreement
or “A landowner and local authority can agree to create a special strip of land along water for public use.”
You could also call this:

“This law explains what happens to land near water when new areas are being developed next to existing protected areas.”

You might have land near the sea, a river, or a lake that has already been set aside as a special reserve. This could be for public use or to protect the environment. If you want to divide up land next to this reserve, you might need to add more land to the existing reserve.

When you submit a plan to divide your land, the local council can ask you to add to the existing reserve. They’ll look at how wide the current reserve is and decide if it needs to be wider. The width they ask for depends on the size of the new sections you’re creating and the rules in your area.

If you’re creating sections that are 4 hectares or larger, the council will use their local rules to decide how wide the reserve should be. The same applies if you’re creating smaller sections. If there aren’t any specific rules for smaller sections, the reserve needs to be 20 metres wide.

The extra land you need to add is the difference between what’s already there and what the rules say it should be. This helps make sure there’s enough protected land along the water’s edge for everyone to enjoy and for the environment to thrive.

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Next up: 237: Approval of survey plans where esplanade reserve or esplanade strips required

or “Rules for checking and approving maps that show special areas along the water's edge”
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Part 10 Subdivision and reclamations
Esplanade reserves

236Where land previously set aside or reserved

  1. Where—

  2. land along the mean high water mark or the mark of mean high water springs of the sea, or along the bank of any river, or along the margin of any lake, has—
    1. been set aside as an esplanade reserve under this Part, or has been reserved for the purpose specified in section 289 of the Local Government Act 1974, or for public purposes pursuant to section 29(1) of the Counties Amendment Act 1961 or section 11 of the Land Subdivision in Counties Act 1946; or
      1. been set aside or reserved for public recreation purposes pursuant to any other enactment (whether passed before or after the commencement of this Act and whether or not in force at the commencement of this Act); or
        1. been reserved from sale or other disposition pursuant to section 24 of the Conservation Act 1987, or section 58 of the Land Act 1948, or the corresponding provisions of any former Act; and
        2. a survey plan of land adjoining that land previously set aside or reserved is submitted to the territorial authority under section 223—
            1. then, notwithstanding that any land of the kind referred to in paragraph (a) has been previously reserved or set aside but subject to any rule in a district plan or any resource consent, there may, as a condition of consent under section 220(1)(aa), be set aside on the survey plan an esplanade reserve adjoining the land previously set aside or reserved, which shall—
          1. be of a width that is the difference between the width of the land previously set aside or reserved and—
            1. the width required by a rule in a district plan under section 77 for an esplanade reserve, if any, where any allotment 4 hectares or more is created when land is subdivided; or
              1. the width required by a rule in a district plan under section 77 for an esplanade reserve, if any, where any allotment less than 4 hectares is created when land is subdivided; or
                1. where any allotment less than 4 hectares is created when land is subdivided, and there is no rule in a district plan under section 77, then 20 metres as required under section 230.

                Notes
                • Section 236: replaced, on , by section 124 of the Resource Management Amendment Act 1993 (1993 No 65).
                • Section 236: amended, on , by section 45 of the Resource Management Amendment Act 1997 (1997 No 104).