Plan Changes
Plan changes are reviews of the District Plan carried out under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA). The RMA requires us to review our District Plan material every 10 years, which we undertake as a ‘rolling review’, meaning section-by-section. Plan changes can be initiated by Council as part of the rolling review, or by an individual who requests a ‘private’ plan change. The public may give feedback and make submissions on a plan change at certain stages (see below).
A typical plan change will have the following steps:
- Draft release - draft plan change material is released under Clause 3 of Schedule 1 of the RMA. The public is welcome to give feedback in the form prescribed.
- Public notification - the plan change is notified to the public under Clause 5 of the RMA. The public is welcome to make a submission in the form prescribed. Affected parties will be sent a copy of this public notice and any extra information by mail or email, as required.
- Further submissions - further submissions may be made in support of or in opposition to any point raised in an original submission. Only certain persons meeting the set criteria in Clause 8 of Schedule 1 may make a further submission.
- Hearing - submitters who indicated that they want to speak to their submission will have the opportunity to do so.
- Decision - the commissioners of the hearing reach a decision and release a report detailing this decision.
- Appeals - if any person disagrees with the commissioners’ decision, they may appeal it to the Environment Court. Note: This process is not undertaken by Council.
- Operative - once any appeals have been settled, the plan change becomes operative and is fully incorporated into the District Plan. This means that the plan change now has full legal effect and applications can be made using any new or amended provisions.