Opinion: Planning reform – time for a re-tread, or a whole new set of wheels?

Over 70% of New Zealanders choose to live in cities. When they function well, cities provide us with vibrant places to live, work and play, greater choices of housing and jobs, higher incomes and a healthy natural environment.

But as cities grow, so does the potential for conflict over access to views, sunlight, infrastructure and natural resources such as clean water and air. Urban planning deals with those conflicts, while also providing local public amenities that benefit communities. But most of us have never read our local district plan, despite the wide impact it has on the way we live.

The Productivity Commission’s recent report – Better Urban Planning – sets out what a high-performing urban planning system for New Zealand should look like. In doing so, we looked long and hard at the current system.

At the core of New Zealand’s planning system is the Resource Management Act (RMA). Introduced to better protect the natural environment, it has been amended 18 times over its 25-year history. Over that period, the quality of lakes and rivers has deteriorated, air quality in some smaller regions worsened, while development failed to keep up with demand in fast-growing cities leading to skyrocketing land and house prices.

Clearly, the system is not delivering for the built environment, nor has it protected the natural environment.

So why is it not working?
In part, it fails by not dealing well with change. The RMA is biased toward the status quo and under recognises the benefits of development. Ambiguous and broad language allows councils to impose overly restrictive rules ranging from arbitrary urban boundaries to sometimes bizarre requirements on developers under the guise of urban design.  

Such rules, along with intense political pressure from local home owners, reluctance to pay for new infrastructure and long-winded processes for getting plans in place, mean cities are too slow to respond to growth pressures.

We recommend a future system that distinguishes between the built and natural environments, with clear objectives and principles for each specified in a single statute – an RMA with a whole new set of wheels.

Planning for enough development capacity to meet demand, within clear environmental limits, must be a priority.

The commission recommends a one-step merits review of plans within each region by an Independent Hearings Panel. Panels will check that plans meet the new high-level principles and objectives set out in legislation, while listening carefully to all voices within communities.  

Such a system would be speedier and less costly while enhancing protection for the environment. Importantly, it should stop the planning over-reach that we see too often from our local councils.

Spatial planning across regions should be mandatory. Regional Spatial Strategies will underpin a new planning framework, better integrating land use with infrastructure needs, and laying out the bones for a region’s future development.

How will councils afford the infrastructure needed for growth to happen?
Auckland, for example, is right up against its debt limits. We propose that giving councils access to more funding tools and putting more debt on to other balance sheets will go a long way to unblock much-need investment.

While a rewrite of the RMA is overdue, changes to legislation, on their own, won’t be enough to solve the system’s weaknesses.

Central government needs to provide greater stewardship and oversight of the system. Both central and local government must build their capabilities in policy analysis and technical knowledge.   

Few participants in our inquiry were happy with the current system, and many were strongly critical, believing the RMA had not worked as intended, and is in need of a fundamental rewrite.

The potential gains from making the changes recommended by the commission are large. The prize is vibrant and attractive cities providing access to affordable housing and well-paying jobs within a natural environment that lives up to the standards we all aspire to.

Murray Sherwin is chairman of the Productivity Commission