Welcome back! We hope you have had a wonderful break. We are excited to be back and share with you the following brief updates from the resource management space, to kick-start 2025:
- Submissions on the Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill (“Bill”) are open until 10 February 2025;
- The hearing of submissions on Plan Change 78 (“PC78”) to the partly operative Auckland Unitary Plan (“AUP”) continues to be hampered by uncertainty regarding whether the legislative provisions mandating implementation of the Medium Density Residential Standards (“MDRS”) are to be amended, and if so, how; and
- The Fast-Track Approvals Bill (now Act, “FAA”) has passed its third reading and applications under that Act can be lodged from 7 February 2025.
Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill 2024
The Bill was introduced on 9 December 2024, as the second round of reforms to the Resource Management Act 1991 (“RMA”) made by the coalition Government. The Bill has passed its first reading, meaning submissions are now open to public and will be heard by the Environment Select Committee, before the Bill has its second reading.
Our in-depth review of the Bill is available here. In summary, the Bill proposes specific amendments to the RMA in the areas of infrastructure and energy; housing growth; farming and the primary sector; and natural hazards and emergencies. The Bill also seeks to make basic improvements to some existing RMA systems and processes, as well as the readability of the Act.
The Bill’s submission period closes at 11.59pm on Monday 10 February 2025. Select Committee hearings will then be held over the next few weeks, with the Committee due to report back to the House regarding the Bill on 17 June 2025. Thankfully, we are expecting this to be the final round of amendments that are made to the RMA, before proposed legislation to replace the RMA as a whole is introduced early in 2026. Interestingly, the Expert Advisory Group charged with developing the “core details” of the replacement RMA legislation was due to provide their report in December 2024 – but to date, that report has still not yet been publicly released.
PC78 hearings continue to be delayed by legislative uncertainty
One of the amendments included in the Bill is to make it discretionary (rather than mandatory, as is currently the case) for Tier 1 councils (such as Auckland Council (“Council”)) to implement the MDRS. If enacted, this means the Council will have the option of retaining, altering or entirely withdrawing PC78, to the extent it seeks to introduce the MDRS. This long-signalled change has understandably created significant uncertainty and delay in progressing PC78, which the Independent Hearings Panel (“IHP”) charged with hearing submissions on that change has had to address.
On 16 December 2024, the IHP directed that the Council file a reporting memorandum by 20 December 2024, which (in particular):
- Responded to issues raised by the Bill and how those are best addressed; and
- Outlined whether the Council has requested a further extension to the deadline for issuing its decisions on PC78 (which is currently 31 March 2026), or expects to receive such an extension.
In response, the Council advised that:
- While it remains in discussions with officials, it had not received any further information directly relevant to PC78, nor an extension of the current 31 March 2026 deadline; and
- It required further time to determine what (if any) additional topics could usefully be progressed while uncertainties regarding the Bill and MDRS remain.
On 30 January 2025, the IHP has accordingly issued directions:
- Scheduling a hearing for outstanding matters relating to the Metropolitan Centre zone (which are not affected by MDRS issues), with that hearing to commence on Monday 28 April 2025); and
- Otherwise continuing to have all remaining PC78 hearings on hold, with this position to be reviewed in early March 2025.
Fast-Track Approvals Act
We have addressed the FAA in previous updates we have provided, since the relevant Bill was introduced under urgency in March 2024. As noted, the purpose of the Act is to facilitate the delivery of infrastructure and development projects which are considered to have significant regional or national benefits.
The FAA received royal assent on 23 December 2024, so (in accordance with section 2 of that Act) commenced as at 24 December 2024. The administrative infrastructure required for officials to accept both referral and substantive applications has now been completed, meaning both types of applications can be lodged from 7 February 2025.
Only the 149 projects included in Schedule 2 of the FAA can now lodge substantive applications – which will then be allocated to an Expert Consenting Panel (“ECP”) for assessment and determination. Any other project seeking to use this version of the fast-track process will need to commence by lodging a referral application, which (if assessed as being complete) is then passed to the Minister for Infrastructure to determine. If successfully referred, the project will then similarly be referred to an ECP for substantive assessment and determination.
Note that the FAA process operates on a user-pays basis, with applicants required to cover the actual and reasonable costs incurred by government agencies, local authorities, panel conveners and expert panels when processing each application. Thus, neither referral nor substantive applications will be progressed until the required fees are paid.
For further information or advice on any of the above matters, please contact one of our team.