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Resource Management Act 1991

Standards, policy statements, and plans - Legal effect of rules - Legal effect of rules

86BA: Immediate legal effect of rules in IPI prepared using ISPP

You could also call this:

“New housing rules in certain areas start working right away, allowing more homes to be built quickly.”

You need to know about a rule called ‘Immediate legal effect of rules in IPI prepared using ISPP’. This rule is part of the Resource Management Act 1991 in New Zealand.

The rule says that some new rules can start working right away, even before they’re officially approved. These new rules are about allowing more houses to be built in certain areas.

For a new rule to start working right away, it needs to:

  1. Be part of a special plan called an IPI.
  2. Allow people to build houses in residential areas, following certain rules about how many houses can be built.
  3. Not apply to brand new residential areas or special areas called ‘qualifying matter areas’.

If there’s an old rule that doesn’t agree with the new rule, the old rule stops working as soon as the new rule starts.

Sometimes, a new rule might suggest easier rules for building houses than what’s in the law. In this case, the easier rules don’t start working right away, but the other parts of the rule do.

If the new rule leaves out some parts of the law or adds extra rules, the old rules about those things keep working until the new plan is fully approved.

‘Qualifying matter areas’ are special places where the local council has said the new rules shouldn’t apply because of important local issues.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS634183.

Topics:
Housing and property > Land use
Environment and resources > Town planning
Government and voting > Local councils
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86B: When rules in proposed plans have legal effect, or

“Rules in new plans become law after decisions on feedback are shared, with some exceptions for protecting important things like water or nature.”

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86C: When rule has legal effect if decision to delay its effect is rescinded, or

“A rule that was delayed starts working again when the delay is cancelled and people are told about it.”

Part 5 Standards, policy statements, and plans
Legal effect of rules: Legal effect of rules

86BAImmediate legal effect of rules in IPI prepared using ISPP

  1. A rule in a proposed plan has immediate legal effect if the rule meets all of the following criteria:

  2. the rule is in an IPI prepared using the ISPP:
    1. the rule authorises as a permitted activity a residential unit in a relevant residential zone in accordance with the density standards set out in Part 2 of Schedule 3A:
      1. the rule does not apply to either of the following areas:
        1. a new residential zone:
          1. a qualifying matter area.

          2. If a rule in a district plan (rule A) is inconsistent with a rule to which subsection (1) applies (rule B),—

          3. rule A ceases to have legal effect from the time at which rule B has immediate legal effect; and
            1. rule A is no longer to be treated as an operative provision of the district plan.

              1. Subsection (4) applies if a rule in a proposed plan—

              2. meets the criteria specified in subsection (1)(a) and (c); and
                1. would meet the criterion specified in subsection (1)(b) but for the fact that it includes a proposed density standard that—
                  1. regulates the same effect as a density standard set out in Part 2 of Schedule 3A; and
                    1. is proposed, in accordance with section 77H(1)(b), to be more lenient than provided for by the MDRS.

                    2. If this subsection applies,—

                    3. the proposed density standard does not have immediate legal effect; but
                      1. all other density standards referred to in subsection (1)(b) have immediate legal effect and subsection (2) applies to those standards as if they were rule B.

                        1. Subsection (6) applies if—

                        2. the rule referred to in subsection (1)—
                          1. omits, in accordance with section 77H(1)(a), a density standard set out in Part 2 of Schedule 3A; or
                            1. includes an additional requirement, condition, or permission regulating an effect other than those set out in Part 2 of Schedule 3A; and
                            2. the omitted density standard, or the additional requirement, condition, or permission, regulates the same effect as a rule (including a density standard, requirement, condition, or permission) in the operative plan (the operative rule).

                              1. If this subsection applies, the operative rule continues to have legal effect until the date on which the proposed plan becomes operative.

                              2. In this section,

                                more lenient has the same meaning as in section 77H(2)

                                  qualifying matter area means an area in respect of which the specified territorial authority has proposed, in accordance with section 77I, that a qualifying matter apply.

                                  Notes
                                  • Section 86BA: inserted, on , by section 12 of the Resource Management (Enabling Housing Supply and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2021 (2021 No 59).