Note that both provisions of the Operative District Plan and of the Proposed District Plan (Decisions Version) will apply during the appeals period, and potentially after the appeals received period (depending on the appeals received).  To find out more, please refer to the information below:

Guidance Note: Navigating the Operative District Plan (2005) and the Partially Operative District Plan (2025) during the appeals stage

This guidance note provides practical information for applicants and their consultants when preparing resource consent applications following the notification of the Partially Operative District Plan (2025).

The Proposed Waimakariri District Plan (Proposed District Plan) was publicly notified on 18^th September 2021. Submissions closed on 26^th November 2021, and further submissions closed on 21^st November 2022.

On 24 June 2025, Council voted to adopt the Hearing Panel’s recommendations in their entirety, in relation to submissions on the Proposed District Plan, Variation 2 (Financial Contributions) and Variation 1 (Housing Intensification / Medium Density Residential Standards), and they became the Council decisions. As the Variation 1 provisions became operative upon notification of decisions, the Proposed District Plan is now known as the Partially Operative District Plan.

The Partially Operative District Plan (2025) will eventually replace the Operative District Plan (2005) in its entirety. In the meantime, both the Partially Operative District Plan and the Operative District Plan are relevant to resource consent applications and Project Information Memorandums (PIMs). This document outlines how the rules, objectives and policies of both Plans apply at different stages, and other relevant information.

Table 1 below sets out which rules will apply (either via having legal effect, being treated as operative, or being operative) at different stages.

Applicants may wish to obtain advice from a planning consultant on how best to navigate this.

Council’s Duty Planner can also provide advice about which Operative District Plan rules (if any) will apply to your proposal.

Table 1: Operative District Plan (ODP) and Partially Operative District Plan (PODP) rules and standards to apply:

Once the decisions version of the Partially Operative District Plan is publicly notified, all rules will have legal effect and must be applied, in addition to the relevant rules of the Operative District Plan.

If an application for resource consent is required under both the Operative District Plan and the Partially Operative District Plan, the bundling principle applies. This means the most restrictive activity status will apply. For example, if an activity is a restricted discretionary activity under the Operative District Plan and a discretionary activity under the Partially Operative District Plan, the application must be processed as a discretionary activity.

When assessing an application, Council must have regard to the relevant objectives and policies in both the Operative District Plan and the Partially Operative District Plan. The weight given to proposed provisions generally increases as the Partially Operative District Plan progresses through the District Plan Review process and becomes more certain. Applicants may wish to provide their own analysis and suggested weighting in their application, particularly if the assessment under each framework might lead to different conclusions.

Council Planners processing resource consent applications will consider the relevant objectives and policies based on the following weighting criteria:

• How far through the plan making process the Partially Operative District Plan is and the extent to which the Partially Operative District Plan has been tested and undergone independent decision making.
• Any circumstances of injustice to the applicant or others.
• In circumstances where there has been a significant shift in Council policy and the new provisions are in accordance with Part 2 of the Resource Management Act, more weight will likely be given to the Partially Operative District Plan provisions.
• Objectives and policies subject to appeals will generally be accorded less weight than objectives and policies that are not subject to appeals.

Once the Partially Operative District Plan becomes fully operative, then the objectives and policies of the Operative District Plan (2005) will no longer need to be considered.

Council recommendations on the designationsof requiring authorities (other than the Council) will follow a different process whereby the Council makes its recommendations (to confirm, modify or withdraw the designation) to Requiring Authorities, then the Requiring Authorities make decisions on Council’s recommendations. Council then publicly notifies the decisions and serves notice on the relevant submitters, then there’s a 30-working day appeal period.

Designations that were rolled over from the ODP and did not receive submissions are essentially operative from when decisions are notified. This applies to following designations: CNZ-1 to CNZ-7 (Chorus NZ Ltd), HDC-1 to HDC-10 (Hurunui District Council), MPNZ-1, MPNZ-3, MPNZ-5 to MPNZ-8 (MainPower NZ Ltd), MPOL-1 (Minister of Police / NZ Police), SPK-1 and SPK-2 (Spark NZ Trading Ltd),  and TPR-1 to TPR-4 (Transpower NZ Ltd).

The Operative District Plan (2005) will cease to apply in its entirety once all appeals on the Partially Operative District Plan have been resolved and the plan has been publicly notified as operative under Clause 20 of Schedule 1 to the RMA.

Decisions on the Proposed District Plan (which will become known as the Partially Operative District Plan) will be notified by 14 July 2025. Then there’ll be a 30-working day appeal period which is expected to close on 25 August 2025.

During the appeal period, most rules of the Operative District Plan (2005) will continue to apply, along with all rules of the Partially Operative District Plan (2025), and the objectives and policies of both District Plans. In addition, the provisions of Variation 1 (Housing Intensification / Medium Density Residential Standards) and Variation 2 (Financial Contributions) will also apply.

The above situation will also apply to applications lodged before 14 July 2025 that are still being processed, and a decision hasn’t been issued by 14 July 2025, and it will continue to apply after 25 August 2025, until information is available which clearly identifies which rules in the Partially Operative District Plan (2025) are subject to appeals.

This is a complex situation and means that resource consent applications and customer enquiries will take longer than usual to investigate and process.

During this period, it’ll also take longer for applicants and agents to prepare resource consent applications, because they’ll need to address the relevant provisions of both District Plans in their applications.

If you’re planning a project, please be aware of the above issues.

For the above reasons, Council has extended the timeframes for processing applications, as set out below.

For the following processes, the timeframe will double from 20 working days to 40 working days:

• Non-notified land use and subdivision applications
• Non-notified applications to vary conditions and consent notices
• Decisions on limited and public notification
• Objections to decisions on land use and subdivision applications
• Outline plans under Section 176A of the RMA
• Certificates of Compliance
• Certificates of Existing Use Rights
• Extensions of time for land use and subdivision consents under Section 125 of the RMA

For the following applications, the timeframe will double from 10 working days to 20 working days:

• Permitted boundary and marginal activities
• Approval of survey plans under Section 223 of the RMA
• Land Use consents that have controlled activity status

We’ll endeavour to process your application as quickly as possible, but please be aware that it’s likely to take longer than usual for the decision to be issued, as per the above reasoning.

Factsheets on the following new provisions will be uploaded to the website, after the appeals received period (after 25August 2025), and the topic is no longer subject to being challenged.

Factsheets

• Built form standards residential & rural Zones
• Medium Density Residential Standards
• Commercial/ Mixed use
• Industrial Zones
• Minor Residential Units
• Earthworks
• Vehicle crossings
• Heritage
• Temporary Activities
• Subdivision

There is a new Flood Assessment Certificate process, which may be required for a building consent to be issued. To find out more about this new process, please refer to the Types of Consent page.

The trigger for a Minor Residential Unit will change to 80m2 (residential & settlement zones) and 90m2 (rural zone) once the appeal process for the District Plan has concluded from 26^th August 2025. Please refer to this page for further information.

Financial contributions are collected by councils to address adverse effects of development that cannot be otherwise avoided, remedied or mitigated. Financial contributions can be used to cover the proportioned cost of the provision of infrastructure, such as upgrading or replacement of infrastructure to service higher capacity; and/or to offset adverse effects on the environment, where such costs are not otherwise addressed by the Council’s Development Contribution Policy under the Local Government Act 2002 or through separate agreements with the Council.

Financial contributions may be imposed for the purpose of promoting the sustainable management of natural and physical resources.

The new District Plan requires a financial contributions could be taken where;

1. There are more than three or more new residential units per site in the Medium Density Residential Zone; and
2. There are three or more new allotments created within all zones.

Refer to link to financial chapter under District Plan.