What is spatial planning?

Regional Spatial Plans (RSP) are instruments which state the strategic direction for growth and change in a region over a thirty-year period.  Under the new Planning Act and Natural Environment Act every region in New Zealand (apart from the Chatham Islands) must have an RSP.   They are a new 1 and exciting aspect of the system, creating significant opportunities for long-term strategic planning.

When will we start to see the Regional Spatial Plans?

Each region's RSP must be publicly notified 15 months after the Planning Act and Natural Environment Act received Royal Assent.  Interested persons will then have 20 working days to make a submission, and each RSP must then be decided within nine months of notification.  So, we can expect to have finalised RSPs around two years from now.  Reviews will then occur every 10 years, as will be required by national instruments, or partially as needed.

When will the Regional Spatial Plans apply?

Once the RSPs are decided for each region, they will not come into force until the Planning Act and Natural Environment Acts' transition period is finished. 2  The transition period will only conclude once all RSPs are decided and all land use plans and natural environment plans have been notified for submission, which is expected to occur by 2030.  Following an Order in Council specifying the date on which the Acts will apply, the transition period will conclude and RSPs will become operative (on the same date).

In the meantime, however, changes to the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) through the Planning Act mean that a consent authority (when making decisions under the RMA) must consider how consistent a resource consent application is with any relevant decided regional spatial plan. 3 

Who prepares the Regional Spatial Plans?

Under the Planning Act and Natural Environment Act, RSPs will be prepared by a spatial plan committee created by the local authorities of a region.  Spatial plan committees can either:

• Be appointed in accordance with the Local Government Act 2002 (LGA); or

• Be an existing committee established under the LGA which has an existing regional planning function.

Spatial plan committees must appoint a chairperson and secretariat.  The Minister may appoint one member to the committee, or more if the local authorities agree.

Content of Regional Spatial Plans

RSPs must contain:

  • Key drivers of growth and change in the region

  • Maps of priority areas of growth and change over 30+ years, existing and future infrastructure of strategic importance, and significant constraints on using land or the coastal marine area

  • Maps of priority areas for climate change adaptation

  • Maps or records of:

    • existing designations

    • future designations

    • statutory acknowledgements

    • sites of significance to Māori

    • customary marine title areas and protected customary rights areas

    • aquaculture settlement areas.

On top of this, spatial plans must also include objectives, maps, and actions, and may include policies, methods or other types of provisions, but cannot include any rules.  Rules will be included in land use plans and natural environment plans which must implement RSPs.

RSPs must implement relevant national instruments, be consistent with any water Conservation order, and be prepared in accordance with any regulations.

We expect relevant National Policy Direction and National Standards to contain more detailed requirements for RSPs.  The illustrative National Policy Direction that is currently out for consultation provides an indication of what may be to come.  The document provides for RSPs to:

  • Identify broad land use patterns, and incompatibility between land uses

  • Sequence growth, change and infrastructure

  • Identify areas for urban development, areas suitable for aquaculture, high value growing areas of regional or national significance, existing regionally significant quarries and mines, and potential new mines and quarries

  • Identify strategic infrastructure priorities

  • Map sources of renewable energy and opportunities to increase capacity

  • Include sites of significance to Māori that meet evidential requirements

  • Direct housing growth, infrastructure and investment in areas where natural hazards can be avoided

  • Identify areas where adaptation planning should be prioritised.

The information that helps form RSPs must be robust and reliable, and proportionate to the level of detail included in the RSP.  If the spatial plan committee preparing an RSP is using information that is uncertain or inadequate, the committee must have regard to the extent of this uncertainty or inadequacy, and consider how the information may be improved over time.

Creation of Regional Spatial Plans

Before local authorities of a region start drafting the RSP, they must prepare a "process agreement" to set out:

  • How the local authorities will work together with the spatial plan committee to draft the RSP

  • Whether there will be any division of responsibilities

  • How spatial plan committees will carry out consultation with infrastructure providers, representatives of development and sectors groups, and the wider community

  • How the secretariat will be established and managed

  • Processes to ensure that each local authority complies with obligations under iwi participation agreements or joint management agreements.

Regulations may also prescribe what should be in the process agreement.

Local authorities from different adjacent regions may include common content ("inter-regional content") that applies to each of those regions.  Local authorities and spatial plan committees must prepare (or change) their RSPs in accordance with any applicable iwi participation legislation (or agreement under that legislation).  In addition, spatial plan committees must have regard to various documents when drafting the RSP, such as any government policy statement prescribed by regulations, land use plan or natural environment plans, long term plans prepared under the LGA, regional transport plans, water services strategies, iwi planning documents, among others.  Since RSPs will be created prior to land use plans and natural environment plans a spatial plan committee can have regard to any document it considers relevant when preparing their RSP. 4

The spatial plan committee also must prepare an options assessment before notifying a draft RSP, as required by the national standards.  However, for now, the options assessment must include:

  • Key drivers of growth and change within the region

  • The level of certainty associated with those drivers of growth and change

  • Identification and assessment of a range of options for delivering on the strategic priorities for growth and change within the region.

Prior to notifying the draft RSP, the spatial plan committee must consult with the Minister, any other Minister affected, regional and territorial authorities of adjacent regions, tangata whenua through iwi authorities, water organisations, relevant infrastructure providers, and representatives of development, the wider community and other sector groups.  The draft RSP and options assessment must be audited by the Minister.

Any decisions regarding the preparation, change, or implementation of a spatial plan should be done by consensus decision making – if there is an issue that cannot be resolved through the dispute resolution process regulations prescribe, the matter must be referred to the Minister.

Finally, along with creating the RSPs, spatial plan committees are required to prepare an implementation plan.  The implementation plan must set out actions to implement the RSP, with an assigned priority, responsibility, timeframe and funding.  More detail about what the implementation plans will look like will be prescribed by regulations.

Effect of Regional Spatial Plans on other legislation

RSPs must be implemented by land use plans and natural environment plans.  Outside of the Natural Environment Act and Planning Act, the Land Transport Management Act 2003 (LTMA) and Local Government Act 2002 (LGA) are also affected.

Regional land transport plans under the LTMA must be consistent with the RSP of the region.  The Minister responsible for the LTMA must take into account the relevant RSP when preparing or reviewing a government policy statement on land transport.

Any long-term plan under the LGA must include steps to implement actions that are required from the relevant RSP.

Designations under Regional Spatial Plans

The Planning Act enables indicative locations of future designations to be included in RSPs.  Following an invitation from the spatial plan committee, a designating authority can apply to have the indicative location of a future designation included in the RSP.  The application must assess the strategic need for the designation in the proposed location and demonstrate that it is either nationally or regionally significant, will have regionally significant benefits, or crosses territorial authority boundaries.  Designating authorities can also apply to notify a proposed designation with the draft RSP.  We note that designations may still be sought through a separate process similar to that under the RMA without being included in RSPs.

Conclusion

Overall, the RSPs are a progressive step for New Zealand's resource management system: they allow for more future-focused planning which should hopefully lead to better long-term outcomes.  Much will depend, however, on additional detail to be set in regulations, the national policy direction and national standards; we only have visibility to a fragment of the spatial planning system at this point.

One issue for businesses, councils, and consultancies to think about is the fact that most of these RSPs will be drafted at the same time – as a result, planners and consultants will be in high demand.  Implementing the RSPs are a key facet of the new resource management system, and ensuring a prompt roll-out will ensure a faster transition to the new system.  However, if there is not enough planning support to design these plans, the roll-out of the new system could be delayed.  In addition, the RSPs will need to be quickly updated once the land use and natural environment plans are live.  This will result in significant work for planners and councils, and is something to prepare for.

1 Spatial planning has occurred on an ad hoc basis in New Zealand before. The previous Spatial Planning Act (now repealed) also provided for spatial planning
2 The transition period begins one month after commencement of the Acts, and ends at a date specified by Order in Council
3 Under RMA, s 104(1D)
4 This could include existing district and regional plans.