A Decade On: Reflections on the Resource Management Act 1991 and the Practice of Urban Planning in New Zealand

Abstract

The radical restructuring of New Zealand's planning system in 1991 was based on the Resource Management Act and significant amendments to the Local Government Act 1974. In this paper we report a study of urban planning in New Zealand under this new regime. Amendments to the Local Government Act were designed in large part to facilitate the administration of the Resource Management Act, the authors of which wanted to emphasise the sustainable management of the biophysical environment and dramatically to limit local government's involvement in urban and social planning. Ironically, the strategic planning provisions of the amended Local Government Act gave local government contradictory powers. We discuss the nature of this contradiction and its impacts on the ways in which district planning under the Resource Management Act and strategic planning under the Local Government Act have combined to create new and unforseen approaches to urban planning and management in New Zealand.