About the Proposed District Plan

Proposed District Plan

In this section

Tena Koutou - Welcome

The Proposed District Plan was been notified on 22 September 2022.  The submission period closed on the 15 December 2022. The Public Notice can be viewed below:

Our Proposed District Plan - He Po. He Ao. Ka Awatea.

The name for the Plan is 'Proposed District Plan - He Po. He Ao. Ka Awatea', which means 'a new day' or 'a new beginning'.

Click here to view the Proposed District Plan

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Proposed District Plan - Key information

Rules Having Immediate Legal Effect
Public Participation Process
Section 32 Evaluation Reports
Background and Assessment Reports

Proposed District Plan - What, Why and How?

What is the District Plan?

The District Plan is required by the Resource Management Act (RMA) to manage all land use (how we use the land) and subdivision in the District. It contains objectives, policies, rules and standards to address issues and must achieve the RMA's goal of sustainability.

What is the District Plan Review?

All Councils are required to review their District Plans every 10 years. Timaru District Council started reviewing its District Plan in 2015.  The review must respond to new issues and align the District Plan with national and regional policy.

From the diagram below, you can see Council has stepped its way through reviewing the current or 'Operative District Plan, gathering information and feedback from the public and stakeholders through the release of discussion documents and a Draft District Plan.  All this work has accumulated in the release of the Proposed District Plan, which is now being worked through a formal public participation process under the RMA.

How was the Proposed Plan made?

The PDP was developed following several years of consultation and background research in accordance with the four stages illustrated in the below diagram. For more information about the development of the PDP, please refer to the section 32 RMA overview reports.

What are the immediate implications of the Proposed District Plan?

The Proposed District Plan is the plan proposed to replace the Operative District Plan.

Certain rules in the Proposed District Plan have immediate legal effect. This means these rules apply now and may result in resource consent being required for some activities that were not otherwise required under the Operative District Plan. In considering a resource consent under the Proposed District Plan, Council must determine how much weight to give its provisions, with more or less weight given depending on how far the rules are though the plan making process. Rules that have immediate legal effect are indicated in the Proposed District Plan by a gravel symbol. A full list of the rules that have immediate legal effect can also be found here.

If there are no rules that have immediate legal effect that are relevant to your activity and if resource consent is required under the Operative District Plan, Council must still have regard to any relevant provision of a Proposed District Plan when considering a resource consent application. Again, this means a weighting exercise must be conducted.

What is the Status of the Operative District Plan?

Although the Proposed District Plan will eventually replace the Operative District Plan, the provisions of the Operative District Plan will remain operative until the time for making submissions or lodging appeals on the rules of the Proposed District Plan has expired and, in relation to the rule,

  1. no submissions in opposition have been made or appeals have been lodged; or
  2. all submissions in opposition and appeals have been determined; or
  3. all submissions in opposition have been withdrawn and all appeals withdrawn or dismissed.
How does the District Plan affect me?

There are a variety of ways the District Plan can affect you. If you own land, the District Plan controls what type of activities you can do on that land, what you can build, how high and certain aspects of the design. Amongst other things, it also controls whether you can subdivide that land and how much noise you can make. District Plans also control what is happening next door and in your neighbourhood. The District Plan Review provides you an opportunity to have your say and potentially influence how the new District Plan addresses those matters in the future.

How to make a Submission?

The submission period to have your say on the Proposed District Plan has now closed.

How your submission will be considered?

After the closing of the submission period, a summary of  all submissions will be published, to give others the opportunity to consider your suggestions and an opportunity to make any further submissions on your suggestions (further submissions). All the submissions will then be addressed in a Council report to a hearing's panel on the PDP.  The hearing's panel will consider all submissions, advice from Council staff and other experts before making decisions on each submission point.

Chapter Summaries

Click on the headings below to read a summary of each chapter of the Proposed Plan. The approach to the issues addressed in the chapter, the reasons for any changes, and what this means in practice is explained.

Last updated: 24 Jul 2023