Speaking to about 500 party faithfuls at National’s 77th annual party conference in Nelson Adams said the tune-up would make the 22-year old planning law clearer, more proactive and easier to use.
The changes would see the scope for central government to influence planning and direct changes widen, including adding a national template on councils’ resource consent and policy statements standardising them with mandatory content to get more national consistency.
Central government would determine the template but Adams said she would not have the power to write district plans.
Adams stressed the changes were not just about environmental protection but planning law.
“It not only has to deal with managing water in our catchments and the quality of our air, it also needs to effectively deal with and provide for the functioning and development of our cities and towns, including public infrastructure like roads and schools,” she said.
“In this respect, the current planning system has not been serving us well.”
Other changes include:
- Consolidating sections six and seven of the act, which deals with its core principles;
- Halving the time limit for processing straightforward applications, like adding a deck or veranda, from 20 to 10 working days;
- Requiring councils to provide fixed-fee options for certain consents;
- Introducing the ability for councils to waive the need for a consent where there is only a technical or insignificant variance from plan rules;
- Make it a council function to provide for a minimum of 10-years of urban land supply to cope with projected population growth;
- Make subdivisions non-notified unless they are clearly not the type of developments anticipated by the relevant plan and underlying zones;
- Enhance provision for natural hazard management;
- Better engagement with local iwi when making planning decisions;
- And councils will be required to publish a list of fixed consent fees.
“This will give councils greater power to act decisively and get on with implementing plans once they are enforced and create certainties for communities and applicant about what they can and can’t do,” Adams said.
During the opening session, Prime Minister John Key said the changes would strike a balance between the Government’s environmental responsibilities and economic opportunities.
He hoped the changes would give greater confidence to businesses and communities to plan and create jobs.
“We want to see more houses built for families, and more jobs for builders and carpenters; not bureaucrats checking passports at the door of an open home as Labour would have us do.”
Key said the changes would deliver on National’s election promise for a six-month time limit for medium sized projects, and allow easier direct referrals for major regional projects to the Environment Court.
Labour's environmental spokesperson Maryan Street said the RMA was being turned into an Economic Development Act and environmental protections were being sacrificed.
“Labour will repeal anything this government does which in our view weakens environmental protections," she said in a statement.
“Despite the fact these changes have been roundly opposed and criticised for their cookie-cutter approach to development, Mr Key is emphasising the one thing which is not a problem – halving the time it takes to get a consent to build a deck on your house."
Street said 95 percent of consents are completed within the statutory 20-days and today's announcement is simply a smokescreen to conceal the real dangers of the government's RMA reforms.
Party faithfuls were welcomed to the conference by a handful of animal rights protests chanting: “We want our voices heard, no to animal testing.”
They were demonstrating against National’s support for the Psychoactive Substance Bill, which could see party pills tested on animals.
Conference organisers started out by urging delegates to respect the protesters but to make sure they carry their conference IDs.
