Applying For a Plan Change

How is the application processed?

The private plan change process is illustrated in Figure 4. Within 20 working days of receiving the application, the local authority may request further information to be provided in regards to (First Schedule, clause 23):

•  The effects on the environment
• Ways in which any adverse effects may be mitigated
• The benefits, costs, efficiency and effectiveness and any possible alternatives to the request
• The nature of any consultation undertaken

The local authority may also commission a report in relation to the proposed private plan change. The applicant for the private plan change can decline to provide the additional information requested and require the local authority to proceed with considering the application (First Schedule, clause 23(5)). In this case the local authority can decline the plan change on the grounds that it has insufficient information to enable it to consider or approve the plan change (First Schedule, Clause 23( 6)).

The local authority is required, within 30 working days of receiving the request and any additional information asked for, to decide how to deal with the request (First Schedule, clause 25). It may either:

• Adopt the request or part of it as a proposed policy statement or plan promoted by the local authority itself
• Accept the request (but not adopt it) and notify it accordingly
• Deal with the request as though it were an application for a resource consent
• Reject the request

Where the local authority adopts the request, it must be publicly notified within four months and will then go through the normal plan change procedure. Where the local authority accepts the request but does not adopt it, the authority must prepare the change in consultation with the person who made the request and publicly notify it within four months. The normal plan change procedure also applies in this case with some small alterations, including giving the person who made the request the right to appear before the local authority and the Environment Court without lodging a submission or appeal (See Figure 3).