Initial drafting of PC1 began in early 2022, which included extensive pre-notification consultation involving stakeholders and the public. PC1 was publicly notified in May 2023 in accordance with Schedule 1 to the Resource Management Act 1991. The original notified version of PC1 did not include the site-specific report permitted pathways.
Original notified version of PC1(PDF, 719KB)
The formal notification led to 193 original submissions and 25 further submissions. Several submissions requested that some form of a site-specific report permitted pathway rule be included.
A hearing was held in February 2024 with three Independent Hearing Commissioners hearing from Council and submitters and making recommendations on the provisions and matters raised in submissions.
The site-specific report permitted pathway was a key topic that was discussed at the hearing. To better inform their recommendation, the Commissioners directed that expert conferencing occur between the expert planners (the Council planners and those planners who provided expert evidence on this topic on behalf of submitters).
Following the conferencing, the planners provided multiple joint witness statements to the Commissioners setting out their recommendations on the matter.
It is noted that the Council planners did not support the wording put forward by the planners who provided evidence on behalf of submitters specifically because it included “discretionary language that is not likely to be commonly understood by RMA practitioners and is not defined within the RMA or the Whangarei District Plan (e.g., “highly unlikely”, and “geotechnically suitable”).”
However, the Commissioners ultimately supported the rules recommended by both the Council planners and planners on behalf of submitters and recommended that multiple permitted pathways be included within the PC1 rules. The Commissioners’ recommendations were adopted by Council and the appeals version of the PC1 provisions now includes these multiple permitted pathways.