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The Resource Legislation Amendment Act 2017 introduced National Planning Standards (Planning Standards) into the framework of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA). The purpose of the Planning Standards is to improve consistency in plan and policy statements and remove unnecessary variation.
What do they do?
The first set of Planning Standards contains 17 separate standards and came into legal effect on 3 May 2019. They regulate:
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the structure and form of plans, specifying the chapters to be included, their order, zone names and descriptions;
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national definitions;
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noise and vibration metrics;
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mapping requirements; and
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electronic accessibility and functionality requirements.
The Planning Standards contain mandatory directions, meaning that councils must implement the Standards without going through a Schedule 1 RMA plan change process. However, in some circumstances the standards provide choice in their implementation, meaning councils may need to initiate a plan change.
Effect on Plan Content
Generally, the Planning Standards do not address the substantive content of plans, leaving this to be determined by local authorities and communities. Two potential exceptions to this are the Zone Framework Standard and the Definitions Standard:
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The Zone Framework Standard requires District Plans (or a combined plan with a district plan component) to include only the zones listed in the Standard. The Zone Framework Standard does not prescribe the objectives, policies or rules of the zone – only zone names and descriptions are standardised. An additional special purpose zone may only be created when the proposed land use activities or anticipated outcomes of the additional zone are significant to the district, region or country, and cannot practically be managed through a listed zone or through a combination of spatial layers.
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The Definitions Standard requires councils to use the terms as defined in the definitions list where those terms are used in their plans. As the definitions of terms have implications for policy and rules, there is the potential for substantive effect. Although councils can make consequential amendments to existing plans to take account of the new definitions, to address such issues of substantive effect, the scope of permissible consequential change is unclear and plan changes may be required. Councils may still define terms that are a subcategory of, or have a narrower application than, a defined term in the Definitions Standard.
Timeframes for implementation
As a result of consultation, timeframes for implementation of the standards have been extended and are staggered as below:
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regional councils have three years to implement the Planning Standards for regional policy statements, and 10 years for regional plans;
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unitary councils have 10 years to implement the planning standards; and
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territorial authorities have five years to adopt the planning standards, with seven years for the Definitions Standard. Councils listed in the Implementation Standard who have recently completed a plan review have seven years, and nine years for definitions;
all councils must meet the basic requirements of the Electronic Accessibility and Functionality Standard within 2 years. Various timeframes also apply for online interactive plan requirements, ranging from 5 years to 10 years to comply.
Future changes
There is a significant amount of content in the Planning Standards for Councils to work through and implement in their plans. Schedule 1 plan changes are likely to be necessary to integrate the requirements of the Planning Standards in a manner that does not compromise the intent of existing provisions. The Ministry for the Environment intends to monitor the effectiveness of the planning standards via a three-tiered review, with:
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the e-plans standard being reviewed within three years;
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any standards with content (i.e. the Noise and Vibration Standard and definitions sourced from legislation) from another source being reviewed whenever the source content is updated; and
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a review of the Planning Standards within six years based on any plans or policy statements that have implemented the planning standards within that period.
These timeframes will give the Ministry the ability to track the progress of the Planning Standards and consider how they are working in practice.
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