What is Resource Management Law?
Resource management has become a specialised area of legal practice. It differs from other areas in many respects including the need for decision makers to make anticipatory judgements about likely effects on the environment of proposals for a development and the need for mastery by lawyers practising in this area to understand complex professional, scientific, […]
Fast-track to Prosperity?
Fast-track processes tend to raise specific concerns. Namely, that: In the previous Fast-track examples, the requirement to avoid, mitigate, or remedy adverse environmental effects, as part of sustainable management, was maintained, along with the ability for the decision-maker to decline the application in appropriate circumstances, especially where material adverse effects could not be made acceptable. […]
Housing Intensification
The Draft Change rezones much of Christchurch’s current residential zoned land to medium density, which enables up to three homes, up to 12 metres high, on a single property, without resource consent. The minimum lot size for subdividing vacant land is 400m2 with no minimum lot size around existing or consented dwellings. Other standards including recession planes, […]
National Policy Statement
Since the passing of the revamped National Policy Statement – Urban Development (NPS-UD) (that replaced the NPS-UDC[1]), the requirement for “Responsive Planning” has opened a pandora’s box of new, extensive, out of sequence or unanticipated greenfield developments. Councils had previously maintained a level of control on these under Regional Policy Statements and District Plans. That […]
Selwyn and Waimak District Plan reviews are looming
Reaching the point of notification has taken a lot of work, some of which your clients may already have been involved in. The Councils have released discussion documents on strategic issues, convened focus groups and sought feedback from interested persons and groups. Now comes the formal part. The proposed District Plan represents the Council’s preferred […]
What’s up with district plans?
These features make the process of plan reviews (including variations and changes, which are amendments to specific parts of District Plans) extremely important in terms of providing for the ongoing protection of existing neighbourhoods and uses or the framework for further development, its nature and their extent. The Christchurch City Council effectively completed its District […]
A new medium-density regime
The Resource Management (Enabling Housing Supply and Other Matters) Amendment Act (Act) gained Royal Assent on 20 December 2021. The Act was only introduced on 19 October 2021 in a joint announcement by the Government and the National opposition. So, the entire parliamentary process lasted one day short of nine weeks. It is fair to […]