Nelson City Council

Nelson City Council has reviewed the way in which it shows proposed Plan Changes in the Nelson Resource Management Plan (NRMP), following the Resource Management (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Act 2009 (RMAA 2009).

In the past, when a proposed council Plan Change was publicly notified amendments were issued that showed the proposed changes as strikethrough or underlined text, and the planning maps were updated with A4 insert maps.

New Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) provisions introduced by the RMAA 2009 mean that, with exceptions, a proposed rule only has legal effect once decisions on submissions have been made (s86B RMA).  Showing strikethrough and underlined text for such proposed rules is therefore seen as misleading and a new system will be used to indicate where changes are proposed.  The system will require the user to seek further information on the relevant Plan Change and its progress through the Schedule 1 RMA process.

Summary of changes

• No more strikethrough or underlined text will be used in Volumes 1-3.
• Symbols will be placed as near as practical to a provision to indicate a proposed Plan Change seeks to amend that provision.
• No more A4 insert maps will be used in Volume 4 (planning maps).
• Two new ‘blue pages’ will be introduced that provide information on current Plan Changes.  One will be inserted at the beginning of Volume 1 and one at the beginning of Volume 4.

Detail on the changes

Blue pages

Two blue reference pages will be inserted into the NRMP as follows:

1. “Proposed Plan Changes”: a list of all proposed Plan Changes that have been notified but are not yet operative to serve as a reference for the entire NRMP (inserted at the beginning of Volume 1); and
2. “Proposed Changes to Volume 4 (Maps)”: a list of all planning maps affected by proposed Plan Changes (inserted at the beginning of Volume 4).

The first set of blue pages will be issued with the next set of NRMP amendments.

Plan text

Any provision subject to a proposed Plan Change will have a symbol placed as near as practical to the title of that provision.  This symbol triggers the user to go to:

1. the blue page at the beginning of Volume 1 (see 1.a) above) in the first instance to determine what the relevant Plan Change is and its status e.g. notified, under appeal etc (more precise information on a Plan Change’s progress through the Schedule 1 RMA process is available from the Nelson City Council website), and
2. the relevant Plan Change documents to determine what changes are proposed.

The symbol used will be a black octagon that references the Plan Change.

Where a proposed rule has immediate legal effect from notification this will be identified as required by s86E(1) RMA.

Planning maps

No new insert maps will be used to show proposed Plan Changes affecting the planning maps.

As noted above (see 1.b)) a blue page will be inserted at the beginning of Volume 4 that alerts the user as to which maps are currently affected by proposed Plan Changes.  This page acts as a trigger for the user to go to the relevant Plan Change document where the proposed amendments to maps are described in detail.  This information is available from the Nelson City Council website; current information on the progress of each Plan Change through the Schedule 1 RMA process is also available.

Points to note

Plan Change status as indicated on the blue pages will be updated at the following stages:

• notification (proposed Plan Change is introduced to blue pages);
• at the close of the appeal period (if an appeal is lodged);
• once operative (Plan Change is removed from blue pages, NRMP text and maps updated).

This new process will be introduced with the next set of NRMP amendments, due in the second half of 2010.

Existing strikethrough text, underline text and insert maps from Plan Changes notified prior to this notice will remain in the NRMP and see out their statutory process using the old system.

Contact

For more information, contact the Graduate Policy Planner, +64 3 546 0388.