We’re updating the District Plan to ensure it enables economic and residential growth, while protecting the things that make Waimakariri special.
The District Plan sets rules for sustainably managing how people use, subdivide and develop land, what and where they can build and what kind of activities they can undertake. The Plan also controls any adverse effects an activity could have on the neighbourhood and protects the uniqueness of our district by looking after our heritage, cultural values, outstanding landscapes and coastal environment.
Next steps once the hearings are concluded:
- Hearings panel issue their recommendations on the Proposed Plan
- Council decides to accept, accept in part or reject the panel’s recommendations
- Council publicly notifies their decision
- A 30 day appeal period opens for submitters to appeal the Council’s decision to the Environment Court
- Appeals heard at the Environment Court
- Once all appeals are resolved the plan becomes fully operative
Hearings have no concluded and we are now waiting for the Commissioners Decisions. The decisions will be notified by 14 July 2025.
Once hearings are completed, the hearings panel will deliberate and issue their recommendations to Council on the Proposed District Plan, Variation 1 and 2.
Update: 12 February 2025
Council has received responses from Ministers Simmonds and Bishop on Councils request for the time extensions for decisions on the Proposed District Plan and Variation 1.
Minister Simmonds has granted under clause 10A(4)(a) of Schedule 1 of the RMA on the Proposed District Plan and Variation 2 Financial Contributions an extension for decisions until 30 June 2025.
Minister Bishop has granted an extension for decisions on Variation 1 Intensification Streamlined Planning Process (ISPP) . The extension for Variation 1 ISPP has been granted until 30 June 2025 and the timeframe to notify the decision to 14 July 2025.
Update: 18 December 2024
Council has written to Ministers Bishop and Simmonds to seek an extension to complete the District Plan review (including Variations 1 and 2). This extension, if approved, will give Council until the end of June 2025 to complete the District Plan. The Ministers will need time to consider our request, and we don't have a timeframe for when to expect a decision.
Next steps
Should the Ministers approve an extension to the requested date, the following actions will need to occur within the extended timeframe:
- The hearings panels will complete their deliberations and issue their recommended decisions on the Proposed District Plan, Variation 1, and Variation 2.
- Council will consider and make decisions on the recommendations from the hearings panels.
- Notification of the Council’s decision.
The panel's recommendations will go to the Council who will vote to accept, accept in part or reject the panel's recommendations.
Should the Council vote to accept the panel's recommendations, the Council will then adopt these recommendations as the Council’s decision on the Proposed District Plan, Variation 1 and 2.
If submitters do not agree with the Council's decision on the Proposed District Plan or Variation 2 and seek a different outcome, they have 30 working days to lodge an appeal to the Environment Court Resource Management (Forms, Fees, and Procedure Regulations 2003) at which stage the process moves out of Council's administration to the Environment Court.
There is no right to appeal to the Environment Court on Variation 1, but decisions may be appealed to the High Court on points of law.
Partially Operative Waimakariri District Plan and appeals
The parts of the Proposed Plan, Variation 1 and 2 that are NOT appealed will be treated as operative.
Plan provisions (objectives, policies, rules and other methods) that are appealed to the Environment Court do not become operative until the outcome of the appeals for those provisions are resolved.
Once all the appeals on the Partially Operative Waimakariri District Plan have been worked through, the Plan will be made fully operative. The duration of this process will depend on the number of and complexity of appeals.
Submissions
The formal submission period for the Proposed Waimakariri District Plan closed on 26 November 2021 and the Summary of submissions can be viewed here.
Requests for individual submissions can be made to developmentplanning@wmk.govt.nz.
Further Submissions
Further submissions were an opportunity for people who represent a relevant aspect of the public interest, or have an interest greater than the general public, to make a further submission on an original submission.
The further submission period for the Proposed Waimakariri District Plan has closed. The Further Submission database is available to download.
The Council will hold public hearings on the submissions received beginning in mid-2023 and running until late-2024. Following the hearings we will give notice of the Commissioner’s decisions on the Proposed District Plan, Variation 1 and Variation 2 (and matters raised in submissions, including reasons for accepting or rejecting submissions).
After the close of the further submission consultation on the Waimakariri District Plan review on 21 November 2022, the Council has identified several submission points either incorrectly summarised or missed within the original summary of submissions. The Council has corrected these affected submission points.
- Errata Notice - Notification of the Summary of Additional Submissions
- Errata Notice - Summary of Submissions
Variation 1 and Variation 2
In December 2021, the government introduced the Resource Management (Enabling Housing Supply and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2021 (Amendment Act) to amend aspects of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA).
The Amendment Act requires Councils to introduce Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS) into the Proposed District Plan. It also requires residential areas in the affected townships to be rezoned Medium Density Residential Zone and adopt the MDRS. We've done this by notifying Variation 1 to the Proposed District Plan. Submissions closed on 9 September 2022.
Variation 2 is a variation to the Proposed District Plan in respect to financial contributions. Financial contributions may be collected on resource consents or permitted activities to fund upgrades to infrastructure, such as roading and the supply of drinking water, wastewater and stormwater, or to offset adverse effects on the environment. Submissions on Variation 2 closed on 9 September 2022.
Summary of Submissions on Variation 1 and 2 can be found under Supporting Documents.
Following the notification of the Proposed District Plan on 18 September 2021 and the subsequent reviewing of submissions, minor errors have been found in the Proposed Plan. The Council is able to correct such errors in the Proposed Plan without public consultation under clause16(2) of the Resource Management Act 1991. To find out more about these minor errors, please read the Council memo.