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383A: Existing permissions to allow use of beds of lakes and rivers
or “Old permissions for using lake and river beds are now treated like special approvals under the new rules.”
You could also call this:

“Old permits for using coastal areas become new coastal permits under updated rules”

If you had permission to use an area in the coastal marine area before this Act started, your permission becomes a coastal permit under this new Act. This includes permissions from old town planning laws, harbour laws, and other special laws.

Your new coastal permit has the same conditions as your old permission, as long as they don’t clash with this new Act. The appropriate consent authority is now in charge of your permit.

Even if you have one of these old permissions or a new coastal permit, you might not be allowed to do everything in the coastal marine area. You need to have had all the right permissions under the old laws to do those activities now.

You can ask the regional council to change your permit to include things that could have been in your old permission. This helps make sure your permit lets you do your activities. You can do this until the new regional coastal plan is announced.

If you want to change your permit in this way, the regional council only needs to tell the Minister of Conservation and anyone else with a resource consent who might be affected by your activities.

Remember, there’s a special rule in the Aquaculture Reform Act that affects how this section works.

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Next up: 384A: Right of port companies to occupy coastal marine area

or “Port companies can get special permission to use coastal areas for their work until 2026.”
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Part 15 Transitional provisions
Transitional resource consents

384Existing permissions to become coastal permits

  1. Every—

  2. permission granted under any of Parts 2, 4, and 5 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1977 (or the corresponding provisions of any former enactment); and
    1. licence or permit granted under section 146A or section 156 or section 162 or section 165 of the Harbours Act 1950, Order in Council made under section 175 of that Act, and every approval granted under section 178(1)(b) or (2) of that Act (or the corresponding provisions of any former enactment); and
      1. licence, permit, or authority granted under any Act that was, at the time of its enactment, a special Act within the meaning of the Harbours Act 1950 or any other enactment that provides for any right of occupation—
          1. in respect of any area in the coastal marine area, being a permission, licence, permit, or authority in force immediately before the date of commencement of this Act, shall be deemed to be a coastal permit granted under this Act on the same conditions (including those set out in any enactment, whether or not repealed or revoked by this Act, except to the extent that they are inconsistent with the provisions of this Act) by the appropriate consent authority; and the provisions of this Act shall apply accordingly.

        1. Notwithstanding section 12, a person who is the holder of—

        2. a permission referred to in subsection (1)(a); or
          1. a licence, permit, or approval referred to in subsection (1)(b); or
            1. a licence, permit, or authority referred to in subsection (1)(c); or
              1. a coastal permit granted by virtue of the operation of any of the provisions of sections 390, 390A, 390C, and 393—
                  1. shall not thereby be authorised to carry out any activity referred to in section 12, except where that person also holds every other permission, licence, permit, or approval referred to in subsection (1)(a) or subsection (1)(b) that, immediately before the date of commencement of this Act, he or she was legally required to hold in order to carry out the activity.

                1. Notwithstanding subsection (2), every coastal permit deemed to be granted by subsection (1) shall be deemed to include a condition enabling the holder of the permit, at any time until the proposed regional coastal plan is notified, to apply to the relevant regional council under section 127(1) to change the permit for the purpose of including, as conditions of that permit, matters that could have been included in a permission referred to in subsection (1)(a) or a licence, permit, or approval referred to in subsection (1)(b) or a licence, permit, or authority referred to in subsection (1)(c), and of enabling the permit to authorise the activity.

                2. Notwithstanding section 127, any application under that section to change a permit pursuant to subsection (3) shall be notified only to the Minister of Conservation and any other resource consent holder who may be affected by the activity which is the subject of the application.

                3. This section applies subject to section 12 of the Aquaculture Reform (Repeals and Transitional Provisions) Act 2004.

                Notes
                • Section 384: replaced, on , by section 176 of the Resource Management Amendment Act 1993 (1993 No 65).
                • Section 384(5): inserted, on , by section 21 of the Resource Management Amendment Act (No 2) 2004 (2004 No 103).