Better leadership is required from central government as seesawing administrations heap an excessive administrative burden on councils, Dunedin councillors say.
At last week’s council meeting, elected representatives were updated by staff on preparations to comply with the coalition government’s ongoing resource management reform.
Staff confirmed Plan Change 2, a review of the city’s heritage provisions and design of multi-unit development, was paused.
Cr Christine Garey said none of the government’s touted focus on localism was reflected in it requiring the Dunedin City Council to halt that piece of work.
The plan change would have addressed important, Dunedin-specific issues, she said.
"We were partly through the process and nothing was more frustrating than having done all the work and got to this point and then to be told by central government to stop.
"This was important to our city, this was something we knew about, and this is how we were addressing it."
In July, Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop announced the government would stop "unnecessary" plan changes — suspending requirements for councils to review plans or notify new plan changes, unless they met exemption criteria.
Councils spent too much time on plan processes which would likely be incomplete or wasted under the government’s RMA replacement legislation, Mr Bishop said.
Cr Jim O’Malley said the council had been through "a seesaw and swing" because of changing governments and policy.
"It's causing a lot of excessive administrative burden on councils for this stuff to be stopped and started and changed and twisted," he said.
"Frankly, we need better leadership from central government."
The new planning system legislation was expected to be introduced to Parliament before the end of the year, pass into law next year, and be in effect by 2027.
Council city development manager Dr Anna Johnson said once the legislation was in place, the council would likely be asked to produce a spatial plan, a strategic development blueprint, with the Otago Regional Council within 12 months as part of a broader regional plan.
"Our work programme includes quite a bit of work to get ready for that, because 12 months is not a long time to produce a spatial plan, particularly under a new governance arrangement."
Councillors accepted the report.
