Private plan changes

A recent article discussed how plan changes alter the zoning or rules within a zoning, and how these changes may affect you.

Any person or group of people can initiate a request for a plan change and present this to their local Council for consideration. There are a number of issues that Council need to consider when deciding whether to allow a plan change to proceed. Many of the recent rezonings of land for new housing projects has been initiated by private individuals rather than Council.

However, to be successful with a plan change proposal, significant preliminary investigations need to be undertaken with supporting reports. These address such matters as urban design, roading, infrastructure, reserves, costs, and timing. The success or otherwise of a plan change will depend on whether the proposal integrates well with Council’s strategic and planning documents, whether there is local community support for the change, and the timing of the request.

The Resource Management Act deals with requests for private plan changes and how these need to be dealt with, and the decisions that Council are required to make.