Have your say on Unitary Plan

It would be the New Zealand’s biggest single resource management plan.

The Unitary Plan will contain rules governing large and small-scale development projects in Auckland over the coming decade.

It will affect what landowners in Auckland can do on their own land and what your neighbours can do on their property.

Potential barriers

It has the potential to create significant opportunities for businesses and property owners in Auckland but if inappropriate rules would become barriers to development.

For example, if you wish to develop residential land, you must understand that the new, streamlined zoning system replaces the previous 99 zones with five new zones and introduces a new system of overlays and precincts that could attract different rules depending on several factors including the age or character of your property.

Even if you have no plans to develop your residential property, you may want to know if your neighbours have been zoned for high-density apartments and terraced housing.

If you own a commercial or industrial property that is on the edge of one zone, there may be an advantage in trying to include your property in the other nearby zone, if the rules for the nearby zone would make your development plans faster and more cost effective.

Public consultation

The Unitary Plan schedules new properties as heritage places. Demolition of a ‘Category A’ heritage item is a prohibited activity.

There are opportunities to have your say on the policies and rules that will control the ability to develop your land and regulate business activities.

It is essential that property owners understand the implications of the Unitary Plan and ensure that they participate effectively in the feedback and consultation processes.

Plan Objectives

The Auckland Council adopted ‘The Auckland Plan’ in March 2012, accommodating growth in Auckland (with the City population increasing by one million in 30 years).

The Plan sets strategic direction for Auckland’s growth and contribute to its social, economic, environmental, and cultural well-being by providing a comprehensive and effective long-term strategy for managing development.

The Auckland Plan has retained the notion of developing a quality compact urban form as the guiding planning principle for Auckland’s development.

The rationale for the compact urban form model is that concentrating and intensifying development in centres and corridors reduces pressure on the environment and infrastructure (such as roads, pipes, power and public transport), while generating the density of population required to efficiently provide social and community facilities (e.g. schools and medical services).

The aspiration is that 70% of new housing will be built within the boundaries of a Rural Urban Boundary (which is based on the old Metropolitan Urban Limit). However, the Auckland Plan also introduces some additional flexibility, which could see 40% of new housing built outside that boundary.

Growth opportunities

The Auckland Plan signalled opportunities for growth and development, both at the periphery of the Auckland and through increased intensification in central areas.

The opportunities will come through very broad ‘upzoning’ proposed in the Auckland

Plan, which signals that zoning in many parts of the region is not set in stone but will be changed in order to promote the quality compact city concept.

While the Auckland Plan broadly outlines where growth can and cannot occur, the Unitary Plan will be the rulebook that sets out the detailed policies and rules against which all future development proposals will be assessed.

It will be the principal regulatory tool to implement the Auckland Plan and will be Council’s key tool to manage development. It will have a direct impact on the shape of the city and the quality of Auckland’s built and natural environment.

Checks & Controls

The draft Unitary Plan includes controls on the intensity of subdivision, the form, size and design of new buildings. It will also specify whether you can demolish or alter heritage or character buildings on your property and the extent to which you can remove or prune trees on your property. It will also specify the amount of earthworks that can be undertaken in developing a site and control the level of any discharges to land, air or water.

The rules vary depending on the nature of various activities (e.g. rural, residential and commercial activities such as hospitality, food and beverage, retailing, offices or home occupations) based the effects that such activities have on the environment in the Council’s view.

Public discussion

The draft Unitary Plan aims to allow more resource consents to be granted non-notified if certain criteria are fulfilled. This means you should not rely on being able to stop a proposal at the resource consent stage. The Plan will be valid for ten years and hence you should have your say now.

Members of the public can provide informal feedback until May 31, 2013.

There will be another formal notification, submission and hearing process commencing in September 2013.

There is not much time between the closure of the initial informal feedback round (May 2013) and the formal notification of the Unitary Plan.

The Council officers need to process feedback and make changes if deemed necessary. It is important to provide feedback as early as possible to ensure that your views are not overlooked in the notified version of the Unitary Plan.

Daunting process

Being involved in the Council’s planning processes can be daunting, particularly for small businesses and landowners who are not familiar with the local government submission and hearing processes.

In this case, the Government is also introducing a special process for the formal notification and hearing of the Unitary Plan to take place later this year:

There is currently a Bill before Parliament that proposes to modify the usual plan change process under the Resource Management Act for the Unitary Plan.

While the final process is uncertain, we expect that it will be considerably more formal and be run more akin to an Environment Court process (i.e. with the ability to cross-examine Council officers and other parties’ witnesses and the expectation that submitters would comply more fully with evidentiary rules).

The Central Government is likely to appoint the Panel hearing the Unitary Plan.

Appealing Rights

The Bill also proposes limiting appeal rights from the decisions to those where the Council does not accept the hearing panel’s recommendations. It is therefore very important to try to get the right recommendation for your business from the hearing panel.

Anil Rana and Joanna van den Bergen are respectively Partner and Senior Solicitor at Ellis Gould Lawyers based in Auckland. If you would like more information or advice on how to effectively participate in the Unitary Plan process to best promote or protect your property, please contact Mr Rana on (09) 3072172. Email: arana@ellisgould.co.nz

Additional Note: Auckland Mayor Len Brown outlined the Unitary Plan in his article titled, ‘Parochialism stymies Auckland’s progress’ in our March 15, 2013 issue, available in the Archives Section of our web edition (www.indiannewslink.co.nz) For details of the Unitary Plan, visit www.shapeauckland.co.nz