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Resource Management Act 1991

Standards, policy statements, and plans - National direction - Designations

44B: Relationship between environmental performance standards, infrastructure design solutions, and designations

You could also call this:

"How environmental rules and design plans work together with special land designations"

Illustration for Resource Management Act 1991

You have a designation that was made before an environmental performance standard or infrastructure design solution. The designation stays in place until it lapses or is altered under section 181. If the designation is altered, the environmental performance standard or infrastructure design solution applies to the new conditions. You can have a situation where an environmental performance standard or infrastructure design solution is made before a designation. In this case, the environmental performance standard or infrastructure design solution stays in place. It prevails over the designation. There are some exceptions to this rule. If you have a use that was lawfully established by a designation, you do not have to comply with an environmental performance standard or infrastructure design solution if the use is the same as it was before. You also do not have to comply if the work was made before the environmental performance standard or infrastructure design solution, and then a designation was applied to the work. In this section, conditions include things like the physical boundaries of a designation. This means that if a designation has conditions about its physical boundaries, these conditions are included in the rules about designations and environmental performance standards or infrastructure design solutions.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS1511025.

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Topics:
Environment and resources > ConservationEnvironment and resources > Town planningHousing and property > Land use
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44A: Local authority recognition of national environmental standards, or

"Councils must follow and enforce national environmental rules when making local plans and decisions."

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45: Purpose of national policy statements (other than New Zealand coastal policy statements), or

"What national policy statements are for: guiding big decisions that affect New Zealand's environment and people."

Part 5Standards, policy statements, and plans
National direction: Designations

44BRelationship between environmental performance standards, infrastructure design solutions, and designations

  1. A designation that exists when a stormwater environmental performance standard, a wastewater environmental performance standard, or an infrastructure design solution is made prevails over the environmental performance standard or the infrastructure design solution 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 environmental performance standard or infrastructure design solution is relevant.

      1. If the conditions of a designation are altered as described in subsection (1)(b), the environmental performance standard or infrastructure design solution—

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

          1. Despite subsection (1), a stormwater environmental performance standard, a wastewater environmental performance standard, or an infrastructure design solution prevails over a designation that requires an outline plan if, when the environmental performance standard or infrastructure design solution is made,—

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

              1. A stormwater environmental performance standard, a wastewater environmental performance standard, or an infrastructure design solution that exists when a designation is made prevails over the designation.

              2. A use is not required to comply with a stormwater environmental performance standard, a wastewater environmental performance standard, or an infrastructure design solution if—

              3. the use was lawfully established by way of a designation that has been removed; 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 was removed; and
                  1. the environmental performance standard or infrastructure design solution is made—
                    1. after the designation was made; and
                      1. before or after the designation is removed.

                      2. Work under a designation is not required to comply with a stormwater environmental performance standard, a wastewater environmental performance standard, or an infrastructure design solution if the work has come under the designation through the following sequence of events:

                      3. the work is made; and
                        1. the environmental performance standard or infrastructure design solution 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 44B: inserted, on , by section 75 of the Local Government (Water Services) (Repeals and Amendments) Act 2025 (2025 No 43).