Why govt reforms are causing headaches for councils

A swathe of government reforms are putting councils at risk of either wasting time and money on a new district plan, or face potential legal issues.

Councils are required to create a district plan to set the rules for all land use and development in the region, and it is prepared in accordance with the Resource Management Act (RMA).

Ashburton District Council is one of the territorial authorities due to review its district plan, at the same time the government is planning another round of RMA reform.

Ashburton’s last district plan became operative in August 2014. The process started in 2008 but was interrupted by the Canterbury earthquakes. Legally, the council is required to review it every 10 years.

Council chief executive Hamish Riach and Mayor Neil Brown recently spoke with RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop on what the upcoming government reforms meant for district plan reviews.

Riach said a “council very close to us” recently concluded a review at a cost of $9 million.

“It’s a massive piece of work.

“The reason for discussing the process with the minister is we don’t want to get started on such a major undertaking at such considerable resource if it’s going to be overtaken by the next lot of reform and be a waste of time.”

Bishop is aware of the issues, Riach said.

“He understood the issue really clearly. There are potential legal issues to not starting a review and wanted to think about that.”

The council is awaiting direction from the minister.

Compliance and development group manager Jane Donaldson said the “moving feast” of government changes will impact a review of the district plan - not just the RMA reforms but things like housing density and freshwater management.

What councils have to do in the meantime is “to try and work in the direction we are seeing on the horizon”.

It’s not just Ashburton impacted by the impending changes.

Local Government NZ president and Selwyn District Mayor Sam Broughton said the big issue is flip-flopping from successive governments about what the solution to RMA reform looks like.

“It has created uncertainty for local government as councils plan future development.

“We believe there should be cross-party consensus on RMA reform so we can all move forward with certainty that the plan isn’t going to change.

“However, local government can’t sit around and continually wait for central government. We just need to get on with planning our regions and delivering for our communities.”

Bishop did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.

- By Jonathan Leask
Local Democracy reporter