About plan changes

What is a plan change? 

A plan change is a change to an operative District Plan. A plan change can be initiated by Council or by members of the public. A plan change initiated by members of the public is called a private plan change. 

District Plans are required to be reviewed every 10 years under the Resource Management Act 1991. Best practice however recommends the District Plan is continually monitored and reviewed. When Council identifies areas that could be improved, the team will research and investigate ways to make the District Plan more effective and may result in a plan change. 

The plan change process involves research, evaluation and consultation with public and those considered affected parties. The RMA outlines the steps that are required to be followed. Included in this process are important steps that include pre-consultation, notification, submissions and hearings. These steps ensure the public have their say and input into the proposed plan change. 

The plan change process

The RMA states the process in which Council must follow for plan changes. This process is as follows:

• Issue identification and pre-consultation
• Drafting changes to the District Plan provisions and the preparation of the section 32 report (which assesses costs and benefits of the changes)
• Plan change and section 32 approved by Council to go ahead with public notification
• Public notification for submissions (submissions period is then open for 20 working days)
• Council officers read and summarise the submissions to produce a Summary of Submissions Received.
• Public notification of summary of submissions for further submissions. This further submission period is open for 10 working days. Further submissions are limited as to who may make a further submission (see section on “Further Submissions”).
• Hearings report produced which makes recommendations on the submission points received as to whether the points are accepted, rejected, or accepted in part.
• Hearing is held, which provides submitters the option to speak to their submission to a hearings panel.
• Hearings panel consider the information received and presented, and make a decision on whether to accept, reject or alter the changes
• Hearings panel take recommendations to Council to adopt/not adopt recommendations
• Public notification of decisions
• Appeals period is open for 30 working days
• Environment Court process if any appeals
• Plan change is operative

Private plan change

A private plan change can be used to change any provision (or introduce new provisions) in the District Plan. A private plan change will follow a similar process in terms of processing, except that the proposed changes are presented to Council by the applicant. 

If you have questions regarding a private plan change, or the process, please contact policyteam@hdc.govt.nz