ABSTRACT

The Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) became operative on 1 October 1991 and was expected to change every aspect of planning in New Zealand. Such wholesale change was revolutionary, as by 1991 there were fewer practising planners who could remember the change from the 1953 Town and Country Planning Act to the 1977 version. The few who could remember would confirm that this was more of an evolutionary than a revolutionary change, which aimed to build on existing processes and approaches while updating and improving them on the basis of experience of planning under the 1953 act. Given the enormity of the change embodied in the new legislation, there was surprisingly little preparation or education of those who would use it. Most professional groups, including the New Zealand Planning Institute (NZPI), provided general one-day introductory courses but little was done to prepare the public and the development community. Essentially the prolonged process of formulating the act had consumed the resources that the government were willing to devote to the new legislation. In retrospect it was a sign of things to come and the information gaps that would be created among the public and the professionals. Larger local authorities, such as the Palmerston North City Council and the Wellington City Council, had spent many weeks trying to prepare careful guidance notes to make the transition as smooth as possible. In reality, however, planners had little idea quite what advice to give – what was a suitable assessment of environmental effects for a minor intrusion into a side yard, for instance, and equally what was required for larger developments that might also involve water issues, the preserve of the regional councils?