The Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) is currently New Zealand’s main legislation for governing how the land, air, and water in our natural and built environments should be managed. It provides the framework under which our local resource management plans are developed.

Following a review of the RMA, the Government has decided to repeal and replace it. The RMA will be replaced with three new Acts; the Natural and Built Environments Act, the Spatial Planning Act, and the Climate Adaption Act.

The new laws will aim to improve the natural environment, reduce carbon emissions and adapt to climate change, enable development within environmental limits, provide an effective partnership role for Māori, and improve housing supply and affordability. The changes also seek to reduce and simplify planning processes, time, and costs.

The Government has advised that the new laws will continue to include resource management plans, that must contain rules, objectives and policies.

The issues we have to address in Tasman will remain regardless of the planning framework we manage them under. For us here in Tasman, it’s important we have strong knowledge of our local issues and options so that we’re well prepared to respond to future legislative changes.

We will continue to work with our communities through this Tasman Environment Plan project to better understand our District’s key challenges and opportunities for managing our environment, providing for development, and building resilience.

Your feedback is important during this time of resource management change, so please get involved.

What we have heard so far

In 2020, locals shared their experiences and views on Tasman’s environmental and development issues and opportunities with us. We collected feedback through our website, phone conversations, meetings, emails, and 21 community-based events.

Council then processed all the feedback received and further investigated issues and opportunities.

Feedback from our community engagement in 2020 raised recurring issues and opportunities around freshwater, housing, sustainable growth, biodiversity, and transport. We also heard about the things that make our places special such as Tasman’s beaches, wetlands, community spirit, peaceful nature, and parks.

Climate change was also identified as a key issue for Tasman, and is likely to bring warmer temperatures, more extreme weather patterns and rising sea levels – all of which will have widespread environmental, cultural, social and economic impacts.

We’re now at the stage of testing the refined issues and possible options with our communities. Resource management covers many topics and there is a huge amount of planning work and technical information that sits behind our issues and options, so we are splitting this round of engagement across two discussion documents.

This first discussion document covers issues related to where and how will live, work, travel, and spend time in Tasman District, as well as the broad regionally significant issues that set the direction of our local resource management. A further discussion document will be released for community feedback in mid-2023 and will cover more issues and options relating to our natural world including biodiversity, freshwater management, air quality and natural hazards. Responding to climate change is interwoven through the relevant topics, and includes a range of mitigation and adaptation measures.

After working closely with our iwi partners and gathering and processing feedback from this round of engagement on issues and options, our team will begin to write the new draft plan and associated mapping of where rules will apply. Once complete, we will seek community feedback on a draft Tasman Environment Plan.