New planning laws are now in place. The Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions & Transport is publishing guidance, tools and updates on this website as the new planning system is introduced in stages.
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Infrastructure
Find out what the new planning system means for infrastructure planning, designations, approvals, permits and project delivery.
Overview
The new planning system will provide clearer and more consistent settings for planning, protecting and delivering infrastructure.
For infrastructure owners and developers, this means clearer national direction, long-term regional spatial planning, and more consistent planning rules for infrastructure such as transport, water, energy, schools, hospitals and other public networks.
Over time, the system should provide greater certainty about where infrastructure is needed, how future corridors and sites can be identified and protected, and how projects move through planning and approval processes.
More issues will be addressed earlier through national direction and regional planning. This should reduce the need to revisit those issues later and provide greater certainty for infrastructure projects.
What the new planning system means for infrastructure owners and developers
Planning for current and future infrastructure needs
The Planning Act aims to make sure infrastructure can be provided where it is needed now and in the future.
National direction and national standards will set expectations for councils when they plan for infrastructure, including renewable energy, transport, water services and other networks. Councils will need to reflect this direction in regional spatial plans and other planning documents.
This should help infrastructure providers, investors, councils and communities understand future needs, where investment is planned, and how planning processes support delivery.
Long-term planning for future infrastructure
Regional spatial plans will help regions plan for growth, development, natural hazards and infrastructure over the long term.
They will help identify future infrastructure needs, and where corridors and sites may need to be protected for future infrastructure.
Decisions made through spatial planning will help guide land use plans, natural environment plans, designations, consents and permits. This should reduce the need to revisit the same issues at different stages of a project.
Planning for infrastructure to support development
Councils will have clearer responsibilities to plan for infrastructure needed to support growth.
Planning decisions will need to consider how infrastructure can be delivered to support development, rather than focusing only on whether infrastructure already exists.
National standards are expected to provide clearer direction on how infrastructure capacity is considered in planning and consenting decisions.
Protecting infrastructure corridors and sites
The new system continues to provide processes for designating land for infrastructure, such as roads, schools, hospitals, electricity networks and other public works. Designation processes will also be available for infrastructure that provides a significant public benefit.
Designations can help identify and protect land for future infrastructure and provide a planning pathway for projects once land has been set aside.
Regional spatial plans may also identify nationally or regionally significant infrastructure corridors, sites and projects. Other projects may use a separate designation process.
Infrastructure projects may still need permits under the natural environment framework, even where land has been designated.
More focused consents and permits
Some lower-impact infrastructure activities may be able to go ahead without a consent or permit if they meet relevant rules and standards. Whether an approval is needed will depend on the rules that apply to the activity and location.
Larger or higher-impact projects that are not designated may still need consents, permits and conditions under the planning and natural environment frameworks.
The new system is intended to make approval processes more consistent, predictable and focused. This includes:
- more standardised rules in plans
- a narrower range of effects and matters being considered where required by the legislation or relevant rules
- fewer consents or permits being publicly notified or notified to fewer people
- fewer opportunities to reopen decisions that have already been settled through national instruments spatial planning, land-use planning or natural environment planning.
Decisions will focus on the effects and issues that still need to be considered under the relevant rules and legislation.
Effects on neighbours, infrastructure capacity, natural hazards, protected places or features, and the wider area may still be managed where the relevant rules apply.
Longer permits for some infrastructure
Some long-lived infrastructure projects may be able to receive permits to occupy the beds and lakes of rivers or the coastal marine area for up to 50 years, where the legislation allows. This is longer than the maximum 35-year duration generally available under the RMA.
Longer permit durations are intended to support infrastructure projects that require significant upfront investment and operate over long timeframes.
The legislation may also provide specific consenting timeframes for some renewable energy projects.
Environmental limits and infrastructure
Environmental limits will set boundaries for the effects that activities can have on freshwater, coastal water, air, land, soil and indigenous biodiversity. This should provide greater certainty early on about whether a project can go ahead within those limits.
Infrastructure projects that need permits will need to be assessed against any relevant environmental limits.
National standards may provide specific pathways for some activities, including activities that breach limits where there is a net public benefit, subject to the requirements set in those standards.
What happens next
The new planning system will be introduced in stages. Existing RMA plans, consents, designations and council processes will continue during the transition, providing continuity while the new system is developed and implemented.
A transitional consenting framework will apply before the full system is in place. This will introduce some changes to consent and notices of requirement processes while existing RMA plans continue to apply.
Proposed designations and land already identified or being considered for public works or infrastructure will be dealt with under the transition rules.
Over time, new national direction, standards and regional combined plans will set out more detail about infrastructure planning, designations, consents, permits, environmental limits and how infrastructure capacity is considered in decision-making.
Infrastructure owners and developers will have opportunities to take part in relevant national direction, regional spatial planning and plan-making processes. The Acts set out public participation requirements and generally encourage engagement earlier in the planning process.
We will add more information over time, including guidance on planning, designations, consents, permits and infrastructure delivery.