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Planning Bill

Foundations - Key instruments - Relationship between national rule and other instruments

43: Relationship between national rules and bylaws

You could also call this:

"How National Rules and Local Bylaws Work Together"

You will have a new rule about how national rules and bylaws work together. A bylaw can be stronger than a national rule if it is more restrictive and the national rule says that is okay. You can think of a bylaw as a rule made by a local council or other group under a law. You can also have a bylaw that allows more things than a national rule, but only if the national rule says that is allowed. This means bylaws can be more flexible in some cases. The term bylaw refers to a rule made under any New Zealand law. A national rule and a bylaw can have different strengths, and this new rule will help clarify how they work together. It is proposed that bylaws and national rules will work together in this way. This change aims to make the relationship between national rules and bylaws clearer.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS1551607.

This page was last updated on 12 December 2025 — View changes

Topics:

Government and voting > Local councilsBusiness > Industry rules

42: Relationship between national rules and designations, or

"How national rules and special area rules work together"

44: Role and application of national instruments, or

"National instruments help guide New Zealand's planning rules and decisions."

Part 2Foundations
Key instruments: Relationship between national rule and other instruments

43Relationship between national rules and bylaws

A bylaw prevails over a national rule if it is more restrictive than the rule and the rule expressly allows the bylaw to be more restrictive than it.
A bylaw may be more enabling than a national rule if the rule expressly allows a bylaw to be more enabling than it.
In this section, bylaw means a bylaw made under any enactment.