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Resource Management Act 1991

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

58H: Changing, replacing, or revoking national planning standards

You could also call this:

“Rules for making changes to important planning guidelines that everyone must follow”

The Minister can change or replace national planning standards. To do this, they usually need to follow a process set out in sections 58D and 58E.

If the change is small or just fixes errors, the Minister can make it without following that process.

The Minister can also change how long people have to follow certain standards from 3 years to 5 years. To do this, they just need to announce it in the Gazette and on a special website.

The Minister can also get rid of all or part of a national planning standard. Before doing this, they need to let the public and iwi authorities know and give them time to share their thoughts.

If a national planning standard is removed, it doesn’t automatically remove any rules in plans that were based on that standard.

When the Minister changes or removes a national planning standard, it’s considered secondary legislation. This means it needs to be published in a certain way.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM7236204.

Topics:
Environment and resources > Town planning
Government and voting > Local councils
Previous

58G: First set of national planning standards, or

“The first set of rules for how plans and policies should be written and organised”

Next

58I: Local authority recognition of national planning standards, or

“Councils must follow rules for making their planning documents match the national standards”

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

58HChanging, replacing, or revoking national planning standards

  1. The Minister may change or replace a national planning standard, following the process set out in sections 58D and 58E.

  2. If a change to a national planning standard has not more than a minor effect or corrects errors or makes similar technical alterations, the Minister may make the change without following the process set out in sections 58D and 58E.

  3. The Minister may change the period for compliance specified in standards 17.2.a and 17.8.a of the National Planning Standards 2019 from 3 years to 5 years without following the process set out in sections 58D and 58E, other than to give notice of the change in the Gazette and on the Internet site referred to in section 58F(2).

  4. Repealed

  5. The Minister may revoke a national planning standard in whole or in part, but must first give the public and iwi authorities notice, with adequate time and opportunity to comment on the proposed revocation.

  6. The revocation of the whole or part of a national planning standard does not have the effect of revoking any provision of a plan included at the direction of, or in reliance on, a revoked provision of the national planning standard.

  7. A change to or revocation of a national planning standard is secondary legislation (see Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019 for publication requirements).

Notes
  • Section 58H: inserted, on , by section 50 of the Resource Legislation Amendment Act 2017 (2017 No 15).
  • Section 58H(2): amended, on , by section 3 of the Secondary Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 7).
  • Section 58H(2A): inserted, on , by Schedule 3 clause 9 of the COVID-19 Response (Management Measures) Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 42).
  • Section 58H(2B): repealed, on , by section 6 of the Resource Management (Natural and Built Environment and Spatial Planning Repeal and Interim Fast-track Consenting) Act 2023 (2023 No 68).
  • Section 58H(3): replaced, on , by section 3 of the Secondary Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 7).
  • Section 58H(5): inserted, on , by section 3 of the Secondary Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 7).