STOP COUNCILS! No more plan changes for a while unless…

One of the key amendments introduced by the Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Act 2024 (Amendment Act) is a “stop” on planning instruments until 31 December 2027. The amendment marks one of the most disruptive changes for councils in recent years.  The reason for this?  The Government’s view is that much of the work councils are currently undertaking is likely to become obsolete or require substantial revision with the introduction of the new planning system in 2027.

What does “stop” mean? Councils must withdraw planning instruments and must not notify new planning instruments. There are three exceptions:

1. the planning instrument is automatically exempt;
2. an application for exemption is granted by the Minister; or
3. the Minister intervenes to direct against withdrawal.

For now, councils will need to:

1. cancel any hearings for non-exempt planning instruments set to begin more than five working days after 21 August 2025; and
2. consider whether to apply to the Minister for an exemption within a 90-working day window.

What is automatically exempt?

Here is the list:

1. Streamlined Planning Processes – any proposed or draft planning instrument.
2. Intensification Streamlined Planning Processes – any proposed or draft planning instrument.
3. New National Policy Statements – any draft planning instrument that implements the requirements of a national policy statement, if required to be implemented before 31 December 2027.
4. Freshwater Planning Process – a proposed or draft planning instrument, using the freshwater planning process to give effect to the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020.
5. Minister directed or called in plans – a proposed or draft planning instrument, or one that is “called in” by the Minister as one of national significance.
6. Natural Hazards – a proposed or draft instrument relating to natural hazards.
7. Regional Coastal Plans for Kermadec and Subantarctic Islands – a proposed or draft planning instrument used to change or vary the regional coastal plan for these islands.
8. Treaty and MACA obligations – a proposed or draft planning instrument that gives effect to any obligation in or under a Treaty of Waitangi settlement Act or deed of settlement, the Ngā Rohe Moana o Ngā Hapū o Ngāti Porou Act 2019, or the Marine and Coastal (Takutai Moana) Act 2011.

What is the process?

Councils must apply to the Minister of the Environment for an exemption in writing no more than 90 working days after 21 August 2025 and must provide:

1. sufficient detail to show how the planning instrument meets the criteria laid out in the Amendment Act; and
2. other reasons for progressing the work (if relevant).

What are the criteria?

An exemption needs to meet the following criteria:

1. better enable the local authority to provide, operate, or maintain the three water infrastructure in accordance with the Water Services Act 2021;
2. rectify provisions in a planning instrument with unintended consequences or inefficient outcomes, or are unworkable;
3. respond to changes made to the Act;
4. better enable the management of climate change;
5. support the transition of high-risk land to better manage the risk of erosion;
6. better enable any relevant Treaty of Waitangi settlement Act or deed of settlement, and the Crown’s obligations under that settlement, to be upheld;
7. enable a response to be made to a recommendation from the Environment Court; and
8. enable work to be progressed that, for any other reason, the Minister considers appropriate.

What does this all mean?

When preparing an application for exemption, councils will need to carefully consider how the planning instrument fits within the criteria set out in the Amendment Act.  Given most of the criteria are relatively confined, in some cases councils may need to rely on the Minister’s broad discretion to enable work to be progressed for any other reason. This will give councils the opportunity to point to matters such as the significant resources invested into a planning process that is already well advanced and that the plan provisions are likely to be part of any new planning system.

Councils will also need to consider how the Amendments Act impacts on the processing of resource consents, particularly where provisions in a planning instrument have immediate legal effect.  Rice Speir will be publishing an article that explores these issues in more detail.

The team at Rice Speir are available to assist councils to navigate this process and prepare applications to the Minister for exemption.