Replacement for the Resource Management Act takes shape

Two new laws will be developed to replace the Resource Management Act (RMA), with the enjoyment of property rights as their guiding principle, RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Simon Court say. ...

... 

Cabinet has agreed on ten core design features for the new resource management system. The new system will:

• Narrow the scope of the resource management system to focus on managing actual effects on the environment.
• Establish two Acts with clear and distinct purposes – one to manage environmental effects arising from activities, and another to enable urban development and infrastructure.
• Strengthen and clarify the role of environmental limits and how they are to be developed.
• Provide for greater use of national standards to reduce the need for resource consents and simplify council plans. This would mean that an activity which complies with the standards cannot be subject to a consent requirement. 
• Shift the focus away from consenting before activities can get underway, and towards compliance, monitoring and enforcement of activities’ compliance with national standards.
• Use spatial planning and a simplified designation process to lower the cost of future infrastructure. 
• Realise efficiencies by requiring one regulatory plan per region, jointly prepared by regional and district councils. 
• Provide for a rapid, low-cost resolution of disputes between neighbours and between property owners and councils, with the potential for a new Planning Tribunal (or equivalent). 
• Uphold Treaty of Waitangi settlements and the Crown’s obligations. 
• Provide faster and cheaper processes with less reliance on litigation, contained within shorter and simpler legislation that is more accessible. ...

Read more

See also

RMA reform phased three fact sheet