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.

If a resource consent is required under the Operative and/or the Proposed District Plan, Council must determine how much weight to give the provisions of each plan, with more or less weight given depending on how far the rules in the Proposed District Plan are though the plan making process.

Submission can still be made on rules having immediate legal effect and hearings will follow if requested. These rules will remain having legal effects until decisions on them are made through the consultation process and any changes to these rules are made operative.

Any chapter that contains rules that have immediate legal effect has a note (as shown below) at the top of the chapter.