Latest news with #NPS-UD
Scoop
2 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Decisions On Christchurch Intensification Plan
Press Release – New Zealand Government In December 2024, the Council accepted the majority of the Independent Hearings Panels (IHP) recommendations on those parts of Plan Change 14 subject to Policies 3 and 4 of the National Policy Statement on Urban Development 2020 (NPS-UD), Minister … Minister for RMA Reform The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, has today released his decisions on 17 recommendations referred to him by Christchurch City Council on its Intensification Planning Instrument (Plan Change 14). 'In December 2024, the Council accepted the majority of the Independent Hearings Panel's (IHP) recommendations on those parts of Plan Change 14 subject to Policies 3 and 4 of the National Policy Statement on Urban Development 2020 (NPS-UD),' Minister Bishop says. 'These recommendations were incorporated into its district plan. The Council rejected 20 of the IHP's recommendations and referred them, along with its own alternative recommendations, to me for a final decision in early 2025. 'I have carefully considered this matter and taken extensive advice from officials. The law requires that I only consider matters that the IHP could have taken into account when making its recommendations. 'I have made decisions on 17 of the 20 recommendations referred to me by the Council, which relate to a range of issues including qualifying matters, zoning and built form standards. 'Together, these decisions will enable a greater level of development in and around Christchurch City's urban centres as required by Policies 3 and 4 of the NPS-UD. 'I have not made decisions on three recommendations relating to Daresbury House, Antonio Hall and the Piko Residential Character Area. 'I intend to consider these recommendations once the Council has decided on the zoning of these areas. The Council may refer these decisions to me again ahead of deciding on the balance of Plan Change 14. 'I thank the Councillors, the Independent Hearings Panel and Council staff for the work undertaken on the Intensification Streamlined Planning Process so far.' Minister Bishop's decisions, made under Schedule 1 of the Resource Management Act 1991, are final and cannot be appealed to the Environment Court. .
Scoop
3 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Decisions On Christchurch Intensification Plan
Minister for RMA Reform The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, has today released his decisions on 17 recommendations referred to him by Christchurch City Council on its Intensification Planning Instrument (Plan Change 14). 'In December 2024, the Council accepted the majority of the Independent Hearings Panel's (IHP) recommendations on those parts of Plan Change 14 subject to Policies 3 and 4 of the National Policy Statement on Urban Development 2020 (NPS-UD),' Minister Bishop says. 'These recommendations were incorporated into its district plan. The Council rejected 20 of the IHP's recommendations and referred them, along with its own alternative recommendations, to me for a final decision in early 2025. 'I have carefully considered this matter and taken extensive advice from officials. The law requires that I only consider matters that the IHP could have taken into account when making its recommendations. 'I have made decisions on 17 of the 20 recommendations referred to me by the Council, which relate to a range of issues including qualifying matters, zoning and built form standards. 'Together, these decisions will enable a greater level of development in and around Christchurch City's urban centres as required by Policies 3 and 4 of the NPS-UD. 'I have not made decisions on three recommendations relating to Daresbury House, Antonio Hall and the Piko Residential Character Area. 'I intend to consider these recommendations once the Council has decided on the zoning of these areas. The Council may refer these decisions to me again ahead of deciding on the balance of Plan Change 14. 'I thank the Councillors, the Independent Hearings Panel and Council staff for the work undertaken on the Intensification Streamlined Planning Process so far.' Minister Bishop's decisions, made under Schedule 1 of the Resource Management Act 1991, are final and cannot be appealed to the Environment Court. A table outlining the decisions is attached here. Policies 3 and 4 of the NPS-UD are set out on page 11 of the National Policy Statement on Urban Development 2020. The Minister's decision making process is set out in Section 105, Schedule 1 of the RMA: .
The Spinoff
25-05-2025
- Politics
- The Spinoff
Auckland Council keeps trying to sabotage its own multibillion-dollar rail upgrade
We're spending $5.5 billion on the City Rail Link. The council keeps trying to stop people accessing its stations or building things nearby. About half an hour into Auckland Council's debate on upzoning the city centre last week, mayor Wayne Brown looked up with a puzzled look on his face. He didn't get why planners were telling his councillors they should vote to limit building heights on Karangahape Road. The area, he noted, was right next to a new train station on the rail line his council and the government have just spent $5.5 billion upgrading. 'The whole point of this, as I understand, is to get more jobs and residents near this expensive railway, the City Rail Link. It doesn't go far enough,' he said. Brown would only get more confused. The new city centre zoning rules his councillors were voting on were an upgrade on the council's current policy settings but still arguably illegal. They'd been served up to them by an independent hearings panel which was charged with giving effect to the National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD), which commands councils to 'realise as much development capacity as possible' in central areas. Despite that, the panel had proposed height limits in broad swathes of the city centre. Though they had been instructed not to consider views, the panellists wanted to protect the 'visual permeability and connection as an expression of the built form [from] the city centre [to] the harbour', which is another way of saying 'we gotta consider views'. Most councillors weren't complaining though. Several actually wanted to limbo under an even lower bar of ambition. Not satisfied with just voting to stop some construction around the City Rail Link, they wanted more stringent limits in place. Albany councillor Wayne Walker led the charge, moving an amendment to add heritage protections to an empty gravel pit down the end of Karangahape Road. He won the backing of Waitematā councillor Mike Lee, who speechified incomprehensibly about short-term parking and 'standing up to vested interests'. At this point, something seemed to break inside Brown. He proposed an exchange: if Walker and Lee were successful in putting heritage protections on an empty site 600 metres from a new rail station, he would move to enable unlimited density near their homes in Whangaparāoa and on Waiheke Island. Councillors laughed nervously. Deputy mayor Desley Simpson started patting his shoulder and urgently making a cutting motion near her neck. But Brown wasn't done. 'To vote to have an empty site turned into a historic building is to demean the value of historic buildings, so you are actively working against preservation,' he said. 'This is stupidity.' Stupidity, maybe. Standard council operating procedure, certainly. Auckland Council is engaged in a war against its own City Rail Link on a surprisingly large number of fronts. In fact, the empty gravel pit Walker and Lee wanted to protect has already been protected once before. James Kirkpatrick Group had its proposal to build an 11-storey mass timber office block on the site knocked back in March after council planners and commissioners agreed it would 'dominate' the streetfront and compromise the heritage values of the surrounding area — a point which would have been more convincing if the surrounding area wasn't a Mobil station and a carpark. Planners relented on that call after it was mocked by everyone from the housing minister to some loser at The Spinoff, but their council compatriots remain committed to other CRL-sabotaging measures. Over at Cross Street, directly outside the new Karanga-a-hape station, Auckland Transport has watered down pedestrian improvements that received broad community support because it wants to retain as much car access as possible. The changes would make more sense if it wasn't for the fact tens of thousands of people will be walking through the area once the CRL opens, arguably creating a need for them not to be run over by a Ford Ranger. If there's a common thread in these decisions, it's councillors and their officials failing to adequately plan for just how much the CRL is going to change the city. The project is adding the transport capacity of a 16-lane highway. Despite that, AT still hasn't removed level crossings in places like Morningside, Mt Albert and Glen Eden, which may mean train frequencies are limited, or even in a small number of cases reduced, on some routes when it opens next year. Meanwhile, the council has retained special character protections on much of the land in suburbs like Kingsland and Mt Eden, preventing thousands people from living within walking distance of the upgraded railway system they've just had billions of their tax dollars poured into. At Thursday's meeting, Brown repeated his threat to turn Waiheke into Dubai if his councillors stopped one more tall building from being built. Simpson patted his arm even more urgently. The threats paid off. Brown won the battle. Walker and Lee were voted down, 20 to 2. But afterwards, ahead of the substantive vote on whether to adopt the IHP's plan, Waitakere councillor Shane Henderson lamented the lack of ambition for the city centre. 'Places where you're very close to train stations that we've invested billions of dollars into building and servicing, I just don't know why, rationally, we would say to a developer that can make it work, that can provide the homes, 'nah you've got to downzone it'. That's weird to me,' he said. When the meeting closed, Henderson told The Spinoff his colleagues were more interested in keeping as much of the status quo in place as possible than maximising the benefits of the CRL. 'There's no vision,' he said. 'The conversation tone is kind of 'what can we get away with?'' As it turns out, a lot. The council adopted the IHP's recommendations with zero votes against and only Henderson abstaining. As the result was read out, North Shore councillor Chris Darby, an ardent special character advocate, could be heard on a hot mic saying 'zero for the feds'. The council had pulled off another heist. The people who want to live and work near our largest ever public transport project will tally up their losses.
Otago Daily Times
14-05-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Christchurch council has until end of year to sort out housing density plan
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop has told Christchurch City Council it has until the end of this year to decide on its housing intensification rules across the city. Bishop has formally declined granting an extension to the council's current December 12, 2025, deadline for the remainder of its Housing and Business Choice Plan Change (Plan Change 14) decisions. The council had sought an extension until September 30, 2026, in light of the Government's proposed Bill to modify the Resource Management Act to allow councils to withdraw undecided parts of Intensification Planning Instruments such as Plan Change 14. That Bill is expected to become law in August. Mayor Phil Mauger says the minister's reply to the council was disappointing. 'An extension from the Minister would've meant more time to weigh up whether we want to opt out of further housing intensification and, if so, to go through the proper steps to decide as a council and to apply for that with the Government. 'As it stands now, our ability to do that by December is up in the air, and we'll need to await further information from the Government's Select Committee on the Bill next month to figure out if we can still make an informed decision in time about whether or not to proceed with parts of Plan Change 14.' A staff report prepared for councillors last month said the council would not be able to evaluate its options until the modified RMA came into effect. Once in effect, the process to consider options, meet any evaluative requirements and seek the approval of the minister was certain to push beyond the current December 12, 2025, deadline, it said. To date, the council has only made decisions on Plan Change 14 that relate to policies 3 and 4 of the Government's National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD), which require greater building development within and around the central city, suburban commercial centres, and planned high-frequency and high-capacity public transport routes. In March last year, Minister Chris Bishop approved the council's request for a time extension to parts of Plan Change 14, specifically those that relate to the Government's Medium-Density Residential Standards (MDRS) being applied beyond areas defined in the NPS-UD, meaning the Council is yet to decide what housing intensification will look like for the remainder of the city. MDRS was proposed to apply across all urban Christchurch, but the opt-out process proposed by the Government may allow the Council to limit the extent of where it applies. Under MDRS, up to three dwellings of up to three storeys can be developed on a property without needing to apply for a resource consent if all other rules have been met. Chris Bishop's letter to Christchurch City Council
