It's a busy time for our team as we progress work to create a new resource management plan for the Tasman District, while also keeping across changes to national legislation.

Resource management covers everything from how we look after our air, land, and water, while also providing for the development of healthy, happy places for us all to live, work, and play.
In this newsletter:

• Information about the Government's RMA reform progress.
• Update on the Landscapes and Coastal Environment Projects following extensive community engagement.
• Upcoming coastal management community conversations.
• Decision to not begin work on desktop assessments of potential Significant Natural Areas (SNA) as we await the new National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity.
• Announcement of the process to develop a new joint Future Development Strategy with Nelson City Council (building on the 2019 FDS).

Ngā mihi nui,
Tasman District Council Policy Planning Team

Following a review commissioned in 2019, the Government has decided to repeal and replace the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA). The RMA is New Zealand's principal legislation for environmental management and provides the framework under which our local resource management plans are developed. The RMA will be replaced with three new Acts; the Natural and Built Environments Act, the Strategic Planning Act, and the Climate Change Adaption Act.

The new laws will aim to improve the natural environment, enable more development within environmental limits, provide an effective role for Māori, and improve housing supply and affordability. The changes also seek to reduce and simplify planning processes, time, and costs. An exposure draft of the Natural and Built Environments Bill was released last month, read it here and have your say by making a submission on the New Zealand Parliament website. Submissions close 4 August 2021.

Ministry for the Environment video explains the proposed Natural and Built Environments Act.

We’re actively working through what the new legislation will mean 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 the Tasman Environment Plan project to better understand our District's key challenges and opportunities for managing our environment, providing for development, and building resilience.

The Landscapes and Coastal Environment Projects are about safeguarding our valued landscapes and coast from specific future activities that would impact what makes them so special.

Senior Principal Planner Stephanie Styles is working closely on both projects and she attended all 13 community feedback events across the District. “Our Autumn engagement period closed at the end of June and we received feedback online and over the phone from more than 300 landowners. Hundreds more dropped in to our face-to-face events to talk about their specific property issues. Where appropriate, we digitally changed the proposed boundaries in response to their knowledge of the land.

“Having an extended feedback period on the draft maps has been hugely valuable. The changes we’ve made as a result of what we’ve learned from locals shows the process is working well.

"At some of our rural meetings we heard concerns from some feeling under pressure from increasing regulation and we want to reassure people that these projects are not about stopping existing activities or removing ownership. We’re grateful to have heard a range of perspectives through this engagement and recognise the hard work and passion in our communities,” said Stephanie.

Further work with some landowners is required before revised maps are released later this year.

In September, we'll be hosting a series of drop-in conversation events at some of the District's coastal centers about how we can best respond to climate change and coastal hazards.

These conversations follow community sessions held in 2019, when we published our coastal hazards map viewer which illustrates up to 2.0m sea level rise and coastal hazards, and gathered feedback on what locals value that may be affected by these hazards.

Council planners, engineers, and scientists will be available to talk through climate change scenarios and how different areas might be affected. Importantly, we'll be presenting four broad options for responding to sea level rise and coastal hazards; accommodate, protect, avoidance strategies, and retreat.

These are complex issues. By coming together to look at what we know about sea level rise and coastal hazards in Tasman, and the options we have for responding, we'll be better prepared for making decisions in the future.

The events will be open to all and we hope to hear a range of views on the options presented.

Event details will be widely advertised and emailed in the next Tasman Environment Plan e-newsletter update. Information shared at the live events will also be available online for those unable to make it in person.

In recognition of the successful Native Habitats Tasman Programme, Tasman District Council has taken the decision to not begin work on desktop assessments of potential Significant Natural Areas (SNA) as they await the new National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity.

Tasman Mayor Tim King said the Council has decided not to pursue a District-wide SNA mapping project as has been carried out in other parts of NZ in response to growing landowner concern around the way we go about achieving our goal to reverse declining biodiversity. “Conversations at recent landowner feedback events have highlighted the pressure that many rural landowners and businesses are facing," King said.

"We have heard from locals that uncertainty around what it will mean to have land classified as a SNA under the anticipated National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity (NPS-IB) is adding to their concerns.

“As a council, we know that to achieve good long-term outcomes for biodiversity we need to all work together. In many places across the District, there are areas of thriving biodiversity thanks to the good work of landowners who have nurtured their properties and restored native habitats.

“We are committed to working with our iwi partners, communities, and stakeholders to help support biodiversity restoration and have therefore taken the pragmatic decision to not begin desktop and aerial assessments of potential SNA while we will await the NPS-IB,” said Mayor King.

A new Nelson Tasman Future Development Strategy (FDS) will look at how Tasman District Council and Nelson City Council can help meet housing and business development demand over the next 30 years. Both Councils committed to building on the current 2019 FDS, at a joint committee meeting held on 6 July 2021.

Future development strategies are based on requirements set out by central government in its National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS UD), the latest of which came into effect in 2020. The 2019 FDS will form a starting point for the draft, but all the sites currently identified for future growth will need to be reassessed under the new requirements of the NPS UD.

Tasman District Council Growth Coordinator Jacqui Deans said the objective was to create a new strategy consistent with any new requirements under the NPS UD, “We’ve got a fast-growing District and so we need to stay on top of things – actively monitoring this growth to keep up with ongoing demands is key.”

Click here to view settlement areas identified for potential development under the 2019 Future Development Strategy.

In May, we conducted a survey of 600 residents across Nelson-Tasman about housing preferences. It's important we understand these factors so we can zone land and shape our planning rules to better enable the types of homes people want to live in.
If you participated in the survey, thank you for taking the time.