General policy statement

The Planning Bill will replace the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA), working in tandem with the Natural Environment Bill. Once passed, the Bills will be known as the Planning Act and Natural Environment Act.

The Planning Bill and the Natural Environment Bill provide distinct, but consistent, approaches for land use planning and environmental management, respectively. The Planning Bill establishes a framework for planning and regulating the use, development, and enjoyment of land. The Natural Environment Bill establishes a framework for the use, protection, and enhancement of the natural environment.

The development of the new planning and environmental management system created by these Bills was guided by the following objectives:

• to make it easier to get things done by—

  • unlocking development capacity for housing and business growth:

  • enabling delivery of high-quality infrastructure for the future, including doubling renewable energy:

  • enabling primary sector growth and development (including aquaculture, forestry, pastoral, horticulture, and mining).

The intention is that these objectives will be done while also—

• safeguarding the natural environment and human health:

• adapting to the effects of climate change and reducing the risks from natural hazards:

• improving regulatory quality in the resource management system:

• upholding Treaty of Waitangi settlements and other arrangements.

The Bills address multiple problems with the current system. Together, they are expected to help to—

• reduce the number of consents needed by narrowing the type of effects that are regulated:

• make it easier to build homes and infrastructure by enabling the establishment of a clear set of rules under each law to guide councils and decision makers:

• increase consistency between council plans across the country through greater standardisation:

• reduce the number of council plans by providing for 1 plan per region that implements national direction and includes spatial, natural environment, and land-use plans in 1 place:

• safeguard the natural environment and human health by introducing an environmental limits framework covering air, water, land, soils, and indigenous biodiversity, and setting out a regime to manage resource use within these limits:

• make better use of data and technology to enable faster, more consistent planning decisions and make it easier to monitor performance and outcomes.

This Bill is an omnibus Bill, as it amends more than 1 Act. It is introduced under Standing Order 267(1)(a) as the amendments deal with an interrelated topic that can be regarded as implementing a single broad policy — to establish a new framework for planning and regulating the use, development, and enjoyment of land.

Alongside the Natural Environment Bill, this Bill creates a system that will operate like a funnel, starting with clear goals that narrow what can be considered at the top and each level of the system. The system architecture in the Bill comprises—

• a set of goals that tightly define the scope of the system:

• a set of national instruments, comprising:

  • national policy direction (NPD) that particularises the goals:

  • national standards that provide further detailed direction for implementing the NPD and clearer and more standardised direction for decision-making and plans:

• a single combined plan for each region made up of 3 integrated components:

  • a regional spatial plan that implements the national instruments to support urban development and infrastructure provision within environmental limits; and

  • a land use plan under this Bill that implements spatial plans by applying nationally standardised zones, rules, and methodologies; and

  • a natural environment plan under the Natural Environment Bill that implements spatial plans by applying standardised overlays, rules, and methodologies; and

  • consents under this Bill and permits under the Natural Environment Bill.

Each instrument must implement the one above it. (The land use plans and the natural environment plans operate at the same level of the funnel under each Bill.)

At the consenting level, councils will manage fewer effects using a higher threshold, reducing the number of consents required. Community engagement is intended to primarily occur during the spatial and land use plan development rather than at the consenting level (as per the RMA).

This is intended to make the system simpler and more efficient, reducing relitigation of matters that have already been decided higher up in the system and reduce the number of consents needed. The levels of the system are outlined in more detail below.

The purpose of the Bill is to establish a framework for planning and regulating the use, development, and enjoyment of land.

The goals in the Bill define the outcomes the planning system is trying to achieve. They will be particularised through NPD, which directs how the goals must be achieved. All persons exercising or performing functions, duties, or powers under this Bill must seek to achieve the goals in accordance with the funnel provision. Goals cannot be relitigated at lower levels of the system. The goals of the Bill are to—

• ensure that land use does not unreasonably affect others, including by separating incompatible land use:

• support and enable economic growth and change by enabling the use and development of land:

• create well-functioning urban and rural areas:

• enable competitive urban land markets by making land available to meet current and expected demand for business and residential use and development:

• plan and provide for infrastructure to meet current and expected demand:

• maintain public access to and along the coastal marine area, lakes and rivers:

• protect from inappropriate development the identified values and characteristics of—

  • specific areas of high natural character within the coastal environment, wetlands, lakes, rivers and their margins:

  • outstanding natural features and landscapes:

  • significant historic heritage:

• safeguard communities from the effects of natural hazards through proportionate and risk based planning:

• provide for Māori interests through—

  • Māori participation in the development of national instruments, spatial planning, and land use plans; and

  • the identification and protection of sites of significance to Māori (including wāhi tapu, water bodies, or sites in or on the coastal marine area); and

  • enabling the development and protection of identified Māori land.

The policy intention is that there is no inherent hierarchy within the goals.

The Bill sets out procedural principles to guide how decisions are made across the system. These procedural principles are intended to ensure that decisions are made in a clear, timely, proportionate, and evidence-based manner. The procedural principles also require that when performing a function or exercising a power under the Bill, people act in an enabling manner that is consistent with other specified provisions.

Central government has a broader and more active role in shaping and overseeing the new system. The Minister is responsible for—

• issuing national instruments including national policy direction, and developing nationally standardised zones, provisions, and methodologies:

• approval of an applicant as a designating authority:

• monitoring system performance and the effect and implementation of the Bill:

• consideration of the use of economic instruments to achieve the purpose of the Bill.

The Minister has a role in the spatial planning process, with powers to appoint a member to the spatial plan committee and to make a direction in relation to the composition of the Independent Hearings Panel (IHP).

The Minister also has powers to intervene, including to—

• direct territorial authorities to prepare a plan, plan change, or variation to a proposed plan to address an issue:

• direct territorial authorities to commence a review of the whole or part of their land use plan:

• direct territorial authorities to take action to achieve an outcome:

• investigate and make recommendations on the performance or exercise by a local authority of any of its functions, duties, or powers under this Bill:

• appoint 1 or more persons to perform or exercise all or any functions, duties, or powers in place of a local authority:

• require local authorities to supply information.

The Minister has the power to recommend the making of regulations on a range of matters where these are contemplated in the Bill, such as processes and procedures related to—

• plan making:

• Independent Hearing Panels:

• consent applications including the appointments of hearings commissioners:

• the Planning Tribunal and the Environment Court.

The Bill also contains powers to make regulations for specific listed matters including—

• preparation of regional spatial plans:

• fees and charges:

• cost recovery:

• infringement offences and infringement fees:

• rules to be included in any land use plan or proposed land use plan:

• criteria for the exercise of hearings:

• compliance and monitoring:

• consent processing:

• emergency response and recovery:

• anything this Bill says may or must be provided for by regulations.

The Minister of Conservation has the responsibilities, duties, and powers that a regional council would have under the Bill in respect of coastal marine areas of specified offshore islands.

The chief executive of the Ministry for the Environment must produce a system performance report every 3 years. They may also undertake a strategic review of any aspect of the system under the Bill at the Minister’s request, or at the request of any entity performing or exercising functions, duties, or powers under the Bill, or on their own initiative.

Under the Bill, territorial authorities have a general responsibility to enable and regulate the use and development of land within its district, including subdivision and activities on the surface of water bodies. These responsibilities must be in line with any direction provided via higher order instruments, such as national instruments or the spatial plan. In undertaking their responsibilities, territorial authorities must regulate and manage––

• outstanding natural features and landscapes:

• areas of high natural character within the coastal environment, wetlands, lakes, rivers and their margins:

• public access along the coastal marine area, lakes and rivers:

• effects of natural hazards relating to land use:

• development capacity of land for housing and business:

• integration of land-use planning and infrastructure planning and investment:

• contaminated land:

• significant historic heritage:

• requirements relating to statutory acknowledgments or Treaty settlements.

The functions of territorial authorities under the Bill are to jointly make and maintain a spatial plan for the region with regional councils, and to make, maintain, and monitor the implementation and effectiveness of the land use plan for its district. They are the consent authority for their districts, they regulate and manage effects, and will undertake compliance monitoring and enforcement actions. Territorial authorities are also responsible for keeping and maintaining certain records for each iwi and hapū within their districts.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may perform enforcement functions where necessary or desirable to promote the purposes of this Bill. The EPA may assist a local authority with enforcement action, intervene in an enforcement action of a local authority, or take enforcement action against a regional council.

The Bill introduces a more targeted and proportionate approach to managing effects by narrowing the scope of effects that are subject to assessment and regulation. Under the Bill, activities that will have a less than minor effect will not be considered, unless they contribute to a cumulative effect. Some of the effects that are out of scope in the Bill are those internal to a site, visual amenity, private views, and negative impacts on competing businesses. Subjective landscape and amenity effects that preserve character are also excluded, except to protect outstanding natural landscapes and features, significant historic heritage, sites of significance to Māori, and areas of high natural character within the coastal environment, and wetlands, lakes, rivers and their margins.

The new system will also—

• ensure that effects are considered against what is allowed by a plan:

• allow effects to be avoided, minimised, or remedied where practicable, and offset and compensated for where appropriate:

• enable national instruments to set out how effects should be managed in certain situations.

Other key changes include new thresholds for affected parties. Together, a narrower scope of, and higher threshold for, effects managed is intended to reduce the number of consents required by the system and enable a more permissive environment.

National instruments will set out detailed objectives, policies, and standardised approaches for addressing national and regional priorities. National instruments will comprise NPD and national standards. Under the Bills, national instruments will be set by central government and implemented by local government through spatial plans and land use plans under this Bill, and natural environment plans under the Natural Environment Bill. Each Bill will have 1 corresponding NPD, which is intended to be a short, targeted document made up of objectives, policies, and directives that provide direction on the goals (such as economic growth, housing, infrastructure, and environmental protection), including how to manage conflicts between these matters. National instruments will be publicly notified, allowing for participation in the development of NPD and national standards. The NPD will be implemented through standardised direction (such as standardised planning provisions, rules, and methodologies) set out in national standards. This is intended to create greater consistency across the system by providing standard approaches to planning and regulating land use and environmental management.

In the new system, there must be a combined plan for each region at all times. A combined regional plan consists of the regional spatial plan, the natural environment plan for the region under the Natural Environment Bill and a land use plan for each district within the region under this Bill.

The first draft regional spatial plan must be publicly notified within 15 months of Royal assent or 6 months after the first national policy direction is issued and must be decided 6 months after it is publicly notified. The land use and natural environment plans must be notified within 9 months of the regional spatial plan for a region being decided.

Under the Bill, spatial planning will be mandatory for each region and must be developed collaboratively by all local authorities within the region, through a spatial plan committee. Central government involvement at the governance and working levels is provided for, and committee arrangements will need to uphold relevant iwi participation legislation and related arrangements.

Spatial plans will support planning for urban development and infrastructure within environmental limits and constraints, providing strategic direction for growth over a 30-year period. Spatial plans form part of the combined regional plan and must implement national instruments. Spatial plans will be implemented by land-use plans under this Bill, and natural environment plans under the Natural Environment Bill.

The spatial planning process is designed to support integrated decision-making between this Bill and the Natural Environment Bill, and integration of development planning with infrastructure planning and investment. Regional land transport plans under the Land Transport Management Act 2003 must be consistent with spatial plans, and long-term plans under the Local Government Act 2002 must help implement spatial plans.

Spatial plan committees are required to consult with iwi authorities and customary marine title groups in the region in preparing the draft spatial plan. They must also work with others with a strong interest in spatial planning for that region, including core infrastructure operators, development and community sector groups, and neighbouring local authorities during plan development. The committees must recommend the draft spatial plan to the region’s local authorities for approval to notify it for public submissions.

Local authorities must establish an Independent Hearings Panel (an IHP) to hear public submissions on the draft spatial plan and make recommended changes. Local authorities must either accept IHP recommendations or decide an alternative solution that is consistent with the requirements of the Bill. The Minister and designating authorities also have a decision-making role in certain circumstances. Points of law appeals and limited merits appeals are available.

Under the Bill, territorial authorities are required to prepare a land use plan as part of the combined regional plan. The aim of land use plans is to enable the use and development of land by allowing activities while regulating effects. The plan-making process is designed to ensure consistency with national instruments and the regional spatial plan while providing for public input.

Councils will have 2 options when choosing provisions for their plans. Where they use standardised provisions, they will select provisions from nationally standardised provisions (including nationally standardised zones) to efficiently assemble the plans content (eg, zones, district wide rules, and overlays).

Councils will also be able to make bespoke provisions. Bespoke provisions must be supported by a justification report explaining why a departure from the national approach is necessary. Importantly, the parts of plans that contain bespoke provisions are subject to merits submissions and appeals. By contrast, a council implementing nationally standardised provisions avoids submissions on the substance of those provisions and only has to prepare a simpler evaluation report. These processes are intended to speed up plan-making processes when using standardised content, while providing for local variation when justified.

The Bill introduces a regulatory relief framework that requires councils to consider the impact of specified planning controls on landowners when they are developing plans. Where such rules are proposed councils must justify the application of a protection to each property (including by referring to data and evidence). Councils will have to provide relief where this impact is assessed to be significant.

Under this Bill, access to regulatory relief the Planning Bill is limited to planning controls that—

• have a significant impact on the reasonable use of land, and

• impose controls relating to:

  • significant historic heritage; or

  • sites of significance to Māori; or

  • outstanding natural landscapes and outstanding natural features; or

  • areas of high natural character within the coastal environment, wetlands, lakes, rivers, and their margins.

Councils will be able to use a range of tools when providing relief, including rates relief, bonus development rights, no-fees consents, land swaps, access to grants and cash payment. The Planning Tribunal will have a role in resolving disputes about how councils have provided relief.

Under the Bill, activity classification will be simplified into 4 categories: permitted, restricted discretionary, discretionary, and prohibited activities. Each activity category will be subject to clear and distinct information and assessment requirements. The new system will also only allow people who are materially affected to participate in the consenting process and will raise the threshold for all notification to focus on adverse effects that are more than minor. Public notification will occur when the adverse effects are more than minor, and not all affected parties are able to be identified. This is intended to enable faster, cheaper, and more certain consenting while reducing the overall number of planning consents required by the system.

Designations are planning tools that secure land for public infrastructure or utilities. Designations may be obtained by designating authorities, including Ministers of the Crown, local authorities, and core infrastructure operators. Some other infrastructure operators will be able to apply to become a designating authority, subject to a higher public benefit test. The designation processes set out in the Bill are intended to enable effective infrastructure provision, reduce the cost and complexity of the designation process, and enable designations and infrastructure provision to be aligned with spatial planning.

Under the Bill, there will be 2 main pathways available for designating authorities to designate land: an improved version of the current RMA process (amended process), and the spatial planning process. The amended process can be initiated at any time by a designating authority giving notice to a territorial authority of a proposed designation for a project. A notice of a proposed designation must include an assessment of the effects of the designation on the built environment and the strategic need for the project in that location. The proposed designation will be assessed against the goals, national instruments, and the land use plan. The designation may be publicly notified or have targeted notification, if directly affected persons can be identified. The recommending authority will make recommendations to the designating authority, who then accepts or rejects the recommendations. Decisions may be appealed to the Environment Court by submitters, or by the council. The confirmed (or modified) designation is incorporated into the land use plan.

Designating authorities are also able to secure a proposed designation through the spatial planning process for projects of national or regional significance, or if it crosses territorial authority boundaries. Through this process, proposed designations are notified as part of the draft spatial plan. Submissions are heard by the IHP, who then makes recommendations to council on the spatial plan. The designating authority then accepts or rejects the IHP recommendations. Decisions may be appealed to the Environment Court by submitters, or by the council. Designations that are confirmed (or modified) through this process will be identified in the spatial plan as well as being incorporated into any relevant land use plan.

In addition to these pathways, the indicative location of future designations will be able to be identified in the spatial plans, in which case the strategic need for the project will not need to be reconsidered through the designation process.

The Bill provides for design details and measures to manage construction effects to be addressed primarily through a construction project plan, rather than conditions of the designation itself. The existing process for construction project plans (called outline plans in the RMA), where the local authority provides a recommendation to the designating authority, with no input from third parties, will be retained. The Bill also provides for co-location of infrastructure, and the permanent or temporary transfer of designations between designating authorities.

The Bill establishes a new Planning Tribunal, intended to provide for a faster, and more cost-effective, way of resolving certain, lower-level, disputes between system users and councils. It is aimed at providing an additional accountability mechanism to help ensure that the new system delivers the desired shifts in planning practice. The Planning Tribunal will be established as a division of the Environment Court, with its own chairperson and pool of adjudicators.

The key functions of the Planning Tribunal will include reviewing administrative decisions made in the processing of consents and permits, for example, requests for further information, notification decisions, interpreting consent conditions, and being able to strike out consent conditions that are deemed to be out of scope of the system.

The Planning Tribunal will have streamlined processes to support the prompt resolution of matters. It will be able to confirm, modify, or quash the decision or aspect of decision being reviewed, or send matters back to a local authority for reconsideration. It will be empowered to regulate its own procedures. There will be a presumption that matters will be decided on the papers unless a hearing is considered necessary.

The Planning Tribunal will not have a role in hearing appeals on plans, designations, and notified consents and permits where there are third-party submitters, nor deal with enforcement matters. These will remain with the Environment Court due to the complexity and stakes involved in those appeals.

The Environment Court will continue to hear appeals on proposed plan and plan changes (although these are limited to points of law in relation to standardised provisions), appeals to notified consents or applications for reviews or changes of consent conditions where there are submitters on the applications. The Environment Court will also hear appeals on designations, and merits appeals on bespoke provisions in land use plans, as well as appeals on decisions of the Planning Tribunal on points of law and appeals on the issue of abatement notices. The Environment Court may also issue enforcement orders and make declarations. The ability for the Environment Court to consider direct referrals and nationally significant proposals will be removed from the system.

The Bill contains a goal to provide for Māori interests through Māori participation in the development of NPD and plans, the identification and protection of sites of significance, and enabling the development and protection of identified Māori land. Policies for this goal will be set through NPD, which councils will have to implement when developing plans.

The Bill includes a descriptive Treaty clause that sets out how the Crown’s responsibilities under the Treaty of Waitangi are provided for in the Bill through listed provisions. These include requirements to notify and consult iwi authorities during the development of national instruments and plans.

The new system includes provisions that address how Treaty settlements redress, Ngā hapū o Ngāti Porou arrangements and Marine and Coastal Area Act 2011 rights interact with the new system as follows:

• provisions that provide for statutory acknowledgement redress in the new system:

• a provision that commits the Crown to work with post-settlement governance entities, and Ngā Hapū o Ngāti Porou, to seek agreement on how Treaty settlement redress or marine and coastal area arrangements will operate in the new system:

• provision that requires those performing or exercising functions, duties and powers under the legislation before that agreement is reached to provide Treaty settlement redress with an effect that is the same or equivalent to the effect the redress has in relation to the RMA, to the greatest extent possible under the new Acts:

• before any agreement is reached, a provision that requires those exercising or performing powers, functions, or duties to give an effect that is the same, or equivalent, to the greatest extent possible as the effect the redress or arrangement has in relation to the RMA:

• provisions that ensure that the rights available under the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 are maintained in the new system.

These provisions are intended to provide more certainty for all users of the system about how Māori interests and the Treaty of Waitangi are provided for.

The Bill retains and strengthens the core compliance and enforcement components of the RMA. These are intended to prevent adverse effects and remedy harm that occurs, support information gathering to inform decision-making, enable a range of accountability mechanisms, and enable effective administration of compliance and enforcement and cost recovery.

Under the Bill, territorial authorities will be responsible for monitoring compliance and undertaking enforcement action as it relates to administering and implementing the regulatory plan of their district and are enabled to set charges to fund these responsibilities. Territorial authorities must prepare and publish a compliance and enforcement strategy in the prescribed manner. Both territorial authorities and, in some cases, the EPA may issue certificates of compliance that state that an activity may be undertaken lawfully in a particular location without a consent.

Territorial authorities, the Minister and the chief executive of the Ministry for the Environment all have system monitoring responsibilities under this Bill. Monitoring is expected to support continuous improvement in plan-making and implementation and will inform future plan reviews. The monitoring processes in the new system are designed to support the system performance and stewardship functions.

Territorial authorities are responsible for monitoring the implementation and effectiveness of the regulatory plan for their district. They are responsible for monitoring the whole or any part of the district as far as is appropriate to carry out their functions and responsibilities under the Bill. The requirements for measuring, monitoring, reporting and record keeping may be set out in national standards. Territorial authorities monitoring must consider—

• the efficiency and effectiveness of rules or other methods in the regulatory plan:

• the performing or exercise of any functions and responsibilities under its plan or delegated or transferred by the territorial authority:

• the efficiency or effectiveness of processes used by the territorial authority:

• the exercise of consents in its district.

Territorial authorities also have a duty to compile and publish a review of the results of monitoring undertaken no less than every 5 years.

The Minister is responsible for monitoring—

• the performance of the system, including monitoring the functions, duties, and powers performed or exercised by any person under this Bill:

• the implementation and effect of this Bill, regulations made under it, and national instruments:

• the relationship between the functions, duties, and powers of central government and local government.

The Minister may investigate and make recommendations on territorial authorities’ performance or exercise of, or failure to perform or exercise, its functions, duties, and powers under this Bill. Where a territorial authority fails to perform or exercise any of its functions, duties, and powers under the Bill, the Minister may appoint 1 or more persons to perform or exercise all or any of those functions, duties, and powers.

The chief executive must prepare and maintain system performance framework under this Bill. The purpose of the performance framework is to maintain regular strategic oversight of the system by:

• improving understanding of whether and to what extent legislative and system outcomes are achieved:

• enabling continuous evidence-based improvements to the operation and implementation of the system:

• supporting continuous improvement in the way in which the legislation is implemented:

• establishing a process to identify and respond to emerging system-wide issues, including national direction outcomes.

In consultation with the Minister, the chief executive must set out key performance indicators for the framework. The chief executive may collect data from any entity that performs or exercises functions, powers, or duties under the Bill.

The chief executive must produce a system performance report every 3 years. This must provide advice on interventions within and outside the control of regional councils to manage environmental limits in an efficient and effective way, and whether additional government intervention is recommended. The chief executive must provide this report to the Minister as soon as practicable and make it publicly available.