Insights

New plan making processes have evolved the planning system to become more focused on speed and efficiency (and more recently achieving development outcomes) over public participation. These processes may be fast, but as this article explores, they may also come at a significant increased cost if planning durability is compromised.

The Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill is the second phase of the coalition Government’s three phase major transformation of the resource management system.  RMA Reform Minister, Chris Bishop has promoted the Bill as a means of giving effect to coalition commitments, providing quick wins for simplifying the system even further, cutting red tape, and delivering changes that can transition to the new RMA system once implemented. This article is an overview of key changes proposed in the Bill.

This article looks at the National Policy Statement – Highly Productive Land 2022 (NPS-HPL) and comments on an important case in the Environment Court in the South Island. It also looks to the future for what the Government has signaled might be on the horizon for the NPS-HPL.

The Fast Track Approvals Bill is one of the most controversial legislative proposals in New Zealand for some time. The Bill aims to deliver infrastructure and development projects that will have significant regional and national economic benefits. But can these benefits be delivered without unacceptable costs to the environment?

The extent to which the proposed end use of water (rather than just the effects on the environment of extracting the water) can be considered when granting consent has been a hotly contested issue in resource management law for some time. 

The replacements for the Resource Management Act 1991, the Natural and Built Environments Act (NBEA) 2023 and the Spatial Planning Act 2023 passed their third reading on 17 August 2023 and are expected to receive Royal Assent next week.

In Local Government Mutual Funds Trustee Limited v Napier City Council [2023] NZSC 97 the Supreme Court delivered a decisive judgment in a long running dispute over whether an exclusion clause in an insurance policy excluded cover for non-weathertightness building defects.

The National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity (NPSIB) came into effect from 4 August 2023. It provides national direction on how to identify and protect significant indigenous biodiversity.

The Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) requires councils to monitor the state of the environment, planning policies and processes, and resource consents issued under the RMA, and to take appropriate action to enforce the requirements of the RMA where necessary.

After the immediate clean-up, the legal, financial, and planning policy ramifications of this flooding event will live on.  No-one has enough information yet to know just what the consequences of this event will be.  However, we set out below some of our thoughts on the likely implications.   We comment on issues that arise out of insurance claims and that relate to planning policy in Auckland.