Auckland Council publicly notified Plan Change 120, its "new and improved" residential intensification and natural hazard risk management framework on 3 November 2025, with submissions closing on 19 December 2025. Approximately 10,500 submissions were received. Our previous article provided an overview of the key features of the plan change.
One of key legislative requirements for the plan change was that it enable the same amount of housing as Plan Change 78, Auckland's original residential intensification plan change, but with more transit-oriented intensification. On 19 February 2026, the Government announced an amendment to the Resource Management Act lowering the requirement for housing from two million homes to 1.6 million.
On the same day, the Council sought an extension from the Independent Hearings Panel until 14 May 2026 for releasing its summary of submissions received. This is a key step in the plan change process which informs the timing for further submissions and hearing processes. In its request, the Council did not address the Government announcement.
In response to the Council's request, the Independent Hearings Panel for Plan Change 120 issued a direction confirming the summary of submissions could be postponed. This means further submissions will open on 14 May 2026 and close on 5 June 2026. However, in advance of this, the Panel has directed the Council to publish all submissions on the plan change online to support transparency and early engagement.
All submissions, documents and information relating to the hearing process for Plan Change 120 can be found here: PC 120: Housing Intensification and Resilience hearings. This is the best place to check for any future updates from the Council.
Our environment and resource management team has been closely following Plan Change 120 and related announcements. Please contact a member of our team if you would like advice on whether you can make a further submission or how you can get involved in the hearing process for Plan Change 120.
This article was prepared by Vipasha Mehta (Senior Solicitor).
