Canterbury Councils Await More Detail On RMA Changes

Thursday, 1 May 2025, 7:27 pm
Article: David Hill - Local Democracy Reporter

North Canterbury’s councils say they are keen to see more detail of the Government’s resource management reforms.

The Government announced in March it will introduce two new pieces of legislation to replace the Resource Management Act (RMA) later this year, promising to grow the economy, raise living standards, protect private property rights and cut compliance costs by 45 percent.

Planning staff at the Waimakariri and Hurunui district councils have been sifting through information to get a sense of what changes might be in store

Waimakariri District Council planning, regulation and environment general manager Kelly LaValley said reducing costs is a positive move, but it remains unclear how savings will be achieved.

The Government is also proposing to include more ‘‘permitted activities’’, where a consent is not required, and relaxing rules to free up land for housing.

The National Policy Statement (NPS) on highly productive land has three classes based on soil types, but the Government is considering whether the criteria should be based on land use rather than soil type.

‘‘We haven’t seen the level of detail to enable us to understand how council’s role may change, in particular how the national compliance and enforcement regulator will work within our local context,’’ Ms LaValley said.

‘‘Simplistically, having more permitted activities means less approvals are needed. There will likely be a range of views expressed on this.’’

Ms LaValley said there is a balancing act between how land is used and ‘‘the trade-offs that might eventuate’’.

The proposed legislation includes one focused on housing and the other on environmental protection and managing environmental effects, similar to Labour’s Spatial Planning Act and Natural and Built Environments Act.

Similarities included placing more emphasis on national direction and providing more guidance on resolving resource management conflicts.

Hurunui District Council chief executive Hamish Dobbie said he was not surprised to see similarities with Labour’s legislation.

‘‘There is only so much you can change, but it is really about the layers of complexity, so it will be interesting once we get some more detail.’’

Mr Dobbie said the Government has proposed relaxing rules to allow for housing on class three soils, but this would be of little use to Amberley, the district’s fastest growing town.

He said protecting land to produce food is essential, but Amberley is surrounded by lifestyle blocks even though the land has class one and two soils.

‘‘The NPS classifies soil type rather than land use, but if you are just running ponies then it is not highly productive,’’ Mr Dobbie said. ‘‘They need to look at actual productivity rather than soil type.’’ The Government is proposing to introduce the new legislation later this year.

It will be open to submissions and appear before the Select Committee next year, with the intention to have the new legislation in place in time for councils starting work on their next Long Term Plans in 2027.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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