Week 1 - RMA

Regional Plans

Regional councils may have more than one plan although most will have a separate coastal plan.  These plans are based on the natural environment and they classify activities and include standards, assessment criteria and information requirements.  Key provisions include:

Water quality (in terms of discharge to land and water, structures and works in streams, rivers and lakes); air quality (controls discharges to air), natural hazards, waste and contaminated land and coastal structures, activities and discharges (coastal plans).

Both regional and district plan consents may be required in some areas and you can find combined plans in some regions (e,g Unitary plan, Auckland)

District Plans

District plans are more about people and often follow a ten year cycle before updating.  They may include, for example, rules on building heights, tree protection (did you know that all trees on roads are protected under the Unitary plan?) and land-use.  The functions of the district plan are listed in section 31 and are detailed below:

1. integrated management of the effects of the use, development or protection of land and associated natural and physical resources of the district.
2. control of any actual or potential effects of the use, development, or protection of land, including for the purpose of :

• the avoidance or mitigation of natural hazards: and
• the prevention or mitigation of any adverse effects of the storage, use, disposal or transportation of hazardous substance; and
• the prevention and mitigation of any adverse effects of the development, subdivision, or use of contaminated land:
• the maintenance of indigenous biological diversity
• the control of the emission of noise and the mitigation of the effects of noise

3. other functions specified in this Act 

The district plan must state the objectives for the district, policies to implement the objectives and any rules to implement the objectives

It must also state any issues that th plan seeks to address, methods for implementing policies, principal reasons for adopting policies and the environmental results expected.  It is useful for finding which information must be included with an application for a resource consent and any cross boundary issues.