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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Marine environment
Find out what the new planning system means for marine activities, including aquaculture, coastal planning, permits and environmental limits.
Overview
The new planning system will provide clearer and more consistent rules for using, developing and protecting the coastal marine area, which includes the foreshore, seabed, coastal water and the air space above the water out to 12 nautical miles.
The system will manage activities such as aquaculture, ports, marine infrastructure and other uses of coastal space through national instruments, regional spatial planning, environmental limits, and land use and natural environment planning rules.
For the marine sector, this means more consistent planning, consent and permit processes, greater certainty about how competing uses of the coastal marine area will be managed over time, and continued recognition of Māori interests and aquaculture settlement provisions.
What the new planning system means for the marine sector
Setting direction for the coastal marine area
The new planning system will manage the coastal marine area in the same way it manages other parts of the planning system.
Goals in the Planning Act and Natural Environment Act will guide national instruments, regional spatial plans, natural environment plans, environmental limits, and decisions on consents and permits. For the marine sector, the most relevant goals include:
- enabling the use and development of natural resources, including aquaculture
- protecting ecosystem health and significant indigenous biodiversity
- maintaining public access to and along the coastal marine area
- protecting identified coastal values
- managing natural hazard risks
- providing for Māori interests.
Directing how the coast is used and protected
National policy direction and national standards will set expectations for how the coastal marine area is used, developed and protected. They will guide regional spatial planning, natural environment plans, rules, environmental limits, and decisions on consents and permits.
Planning how coastal space is used
Regional spatial plans will include the coastal marine area and help identify where activities, infrastructure, natural hazards, environmental limits and other constraints need to be planned for together.
For the marine sector, this should make it clearer how different uses of coastal space will be managed and balanced over time.
Setting regional coastal rules
Councils will still manage activities in the coastal marine area through regional combined planning documents, consents and permits. This can include aquaculture, ports, marine infrastructure, discharges, structures and other uses of coastal space.
Setting limits for coastal water and biodiversity
Environmental limits will set boundaries for the effects activities can have on resources such as coastal water and indigenous biodiversity.
Managing marine activities through approvals
Some marine activities may be able to go ahead without a consent or permit if they meet the relevant rules and standards. Aquaculture can only be a permitted activity in areas where there is a current coastal permit for aquaculture activities.
Other activities may still need a coastal permit, planning consent, natural resource permit, or more than one type of approval, depending on their type and scale.
Where a consent or permit is needed, decisions will focus on effects and matters that are relevant under the applicable rules and legislation.
Relevant rules will continue to manage effects on coastal water, marine ecosystems, other users of coastal space, infrastructure, Māori interests, natural hazards, protected places or features, and the wider environment. However, effects of activities more than three nautical miles from land on outstanding natural features and landscapes and high natural character are excluded from the system.
Public or targeted notification will occur where the relevant legal tests are met, or where a statutory requirement or rule requires it.
Aquaculture settings in the new system
The new planning system carries over recent RMA changes for marine farming and the management of existing marine farms.
Existing coastal permits for marine farms that have already been extended by 20 years under recent RMA changes will carry over into the new system.
Aquaculture can be a permitted activity in areas where a current coastal permit already authorises aquaculture.
New aquaculture activities may still need a consent or permit, depending on the activity, its location, potential effects and the relevant rules.
Clarifying how fishing is managed
The new planning system cannot be used to make rules that control fishing in the coastal marine area. Fishing will be managed through fisheries legislation. Māori customary fishing rights addressed through other legislation will continue to be protected.
This helps clarify the roles of the planning system and the fisheries management system.
Councils will still manage other activities in the coastal marine area through regional combined planning documents, consents and permits. These can include activities such as aquaculture, ports, marine infrastructure, discharges, structures and other uses of coastal space.
Existing council fishing controls will remain in RMA plans during the transition. When those plans are replaced under the new system, the fishing controls will not be carried over.
Allocating coastal resources
The RMA’s current approach to allocating coastal resources will continue.
The new system will not introduce earlier proposals for market-based allocation methods for natural resources, including coastal resources, at this stage. The Government has said further work is needed before any major changes are made to allocation approaches. For marine users, that means the current approach will continue during the transition while future options are considered.
Carrying over aquaculture settlement provisions
Aquaculture settlement provisions will be carried over into the new planning system.
Māori interests will continue to be recognised through Treaty settlement redress and related arrangements, participation in planning processes, and requirements that apply to the coastal marine area.
What happens next
The new planning system will be introduced in stages. Existing RMA plans, consents, coastal permits, related authorisations and council processes will continue during the transition. Marine users should continue to check the rules that apply in their region before starting or changing activities.
Over time, new national policy direction, standards and regional combined plans will provide more detail about coastal planning, aquaculture, environmental limits, allocation settings, consents, permits and other rules that affect marine activities.
Marine sector operators, iwi, hapū, councils, industry groups and other interested groups will have opportunities to take part in relevant national direction, regional spatial planning and plan-making processes as they are developed.
We will add more information as the transition progresses, including guidance on what marine users need to check before starting or changing activities.
See consents and notices of requirement during the transition period.