Could New Zealand's urban planning legislation be simplified?

The Productivity Commission is considering whether New Zealand needs to have so many different Acts influencing urban planning. The Acts under scrutiny in the Better Urban Planning issues paper are:

• the Local Government Act 2002 (LGA)
• the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA)
• the Land Transport Management Act 2003 (LTMA)
• elements of the Building Act 2004, the Reserves Act 1977 and the Conservation Act 1987 that relate to land use.

Looking at this list, it's not surprising the Commission found (in 2015) that the current planning system is complex, and suffers from poor integration. Issues are:

• lack of strong linkages between the various planning processes
• different goals and an unclear hierarchy between the council plans developed under the RMA, LTMA and LGA
• different timeframes and consultation processes for completion of plans under these different Acts.

From my experience, this lack of legislative integration creates real challenges for local government even when staff have the best intentions to work together across RMA, asset management and long term planning disciplines.

What do you think? Could your council deliver better urban planning outcomes if the legislation was changed? Submissions on the issues paper are due by 9 March 2016 and they will be made available on the Commission’s website soon afterwards, at www.productivity.govt.nz.

​Next steps in the process

• Release of draft report: July 2016
• Draft report submissions due: September 2016
• Final report to Government: 30 November 2016