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77L: Further requirement about application of section 77I(j)
or “Extra rules for deciding if special reasons can stop more houses being built in an area”
You could also call this:

“ New rules for building houses apply when you ask to build, even if old rules are still in place ”

When a council notifies its plan to include new housing rules called the Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS), it changes how they look at new building applications in some residential areas. Here’s what you need to know:

From the day the council announces these new rules, they’ll use them to decide on new building applications in areas where the MDRS apply. The old rules in the district plan won’t matter anymore if they don’t match the new MDRS rules.

The new rules don’t apply to special areas that are protected for certain reasons, or to new residential zones that the council creates in their plan.

If you’re the Minister of Education and you have designated land for education purposes in or next to these residential areas, you can use the new MDRS rules if they let you do more than your current designation allows.

When the council is looking at your application, they won’t use any rules from regional plans that don’t match the new MDRS objectives and policies.

Remember, the MDRS rules only start to matter for your application once the council has officially announced them in their plan.

These changes don’t affect other parts of the law about housing intensification.

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Next up: 77N: Duty of specified territorial authorities to give effect to policy 3 or policy 5 in non-residential zones

or “Local councils must change their rules to allow more building in business areas”
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Part 5 Standards, policy statements, and plans
Local authority policy statements and plans: Intensification requirements in residential zones

77MEffect of incorporation of MDRS in district plan on new applications for resource consents and on some existing designations

  1. This section applies in relation to the consideration by a consent authority of an application made under section 88 for a resource consent (a new application)—

  2. for an activity to which the MDRS are proposed to apply in an area in a relevant residential zone; and
    1. that is lodged on or after the date on which a specified territorial authority notifies its IPI incorporating the MDRS in its district plan in accordance with section 80F(1) or (2), as applicable.

      1. The consent authority considering the new application must consider the plan or proposed plan and apply section 104(1)(b)(vi) in the following way:

      2. the provisions of the district plan or any proposed district plan (other than the IPI) cease to have effect in relation to the consideration of the new application; and
        1. the objectives and policies set out in clause 6 of Schedule 3A and proposed in the IPI to be included in the district plan in accordance with section 77G(5)(a) apply in determining that new application.

          1. Subsection (2)(a) applies to the extent that the provisions referred to are inconsistent with the objectives and policies—

          2. set out in clause 6 of Schedule 3A; and
            1. proposed in the IPI to be included in the district plan in accordance with section 77G(5)(a).

              1. This section does not apply in relation to any area or site that—

              2. is a qualifying matter area (within the meaning of section 86BA(7)); or
                1. is in a new residential zone notified in the IPI.

                  1. Subsection (6) applies if a designation for which the Minister of Education is the requiring authority—

                  2. is included in the specified territorial authority’s district plan; and
                    1. the designation applies to land that—
                      1. is in a relevant residential zone; or
                        1. adjoins a relevant residential zone.

                        2. Works undertaken under a designation of the kind referred to in subsection (5) may rely on the provisions of the relevant residential zone that incorporate the density standards in Part 2 of Schedule 3A if those provisions are more lenient than conditions included in the designation.

                        3. Any objectives or policies of a regional policy statement or proposed regional policy statement do not apply to the consent authority’s consideration of the new application to the extent that they are inconsistent with the objectives and policies in clause 6 of Schedule 3A as notified in the IPI.

                        4. This section does not affect the operation of subpart 7 of Part 5.

                        5. To avoid doubt, the MDRS are irrelevant to the consideration of a new application unless and until the MDRS are notified in the relevant IPI.

                        Notes
                        • Section 77M: inserted, on , by section 9 of the Resource Management (Enabling Housing Supply and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2021 (2021 No 59).