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Subject: search.filters.subject.Resource Management Act 1991

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    Contestability in the resource consent process under the Resource Management Act 1991 : a study of opportunities for Māori within a contestable consent process : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Social Policy at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1999) Dowman, Catherine P
    This thesis encompasses aa cross-cultural study that investigates opportunities for Maori in a contestable consent process under the Resource Management Act 1991. The research examines the existing resource consent process and speculates on how contestability as proposed in the Resource Management Amendment Bill 1999 could create opportunities for Maori participation in the resource consent process. The consent process enables Maori to participate by way of consultation on consent application. Under the existing consent process local authorities have the sole discretion to determine the type and level of consultation in regard to consent applications. Resource user groups such as applicants and developer have deemed this discretion a monopoly in the processing of consent applications. Contestability as a recommended option would open the processing of consent applications to the private sector to enhance the consent process in terms of cutting costs and time delays presently experienced. This thesis focuses on contestability in the contest of the processing of resource consent applications. The research was carried out in two phases: Phase one was a documentary analysis of local authority officers to examine the officers' perceptions of contestability and the consequences for Maori involvement in the resource consent process. A statistical analysis and thematic content analysis of planning documents and survey data were used to analyse the empirical evidence. The thesis reached a number of conclusions. The research found that two resource consent processing provisions of the Resource Management Act, ss93 and 94, determine how local authorities will carry out consultation with regard to a consent application. Local authority policies on tangata whenua participation differed considerably from Maori aspirations set out in iwi management plans. Moreover, amongst local authorities, consultation with tangata whenua on consent applications has been inconsistent. Contestability was identified as creating few opportunities for Maori participation in the resource consent process. In addition, consultation, developing new working relationships, funding, Treaty obligations, and level of skills were identified as potential negative aspects of contestability. The research recommends the use of several existing provisions (ss 33 and 34) of the Resource Management Act as alternatives to contestability. If used effectively, these mechanisms could improve tangata whenua participation in resource management processes. The thesis considers that the proposal to introduce any form of contestability in the consent process requires further research concerning the consequences for Maori participation in the consent process.
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    Planning a market : transferable planning mechanisms in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Resource and Environmental Planning at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1996) Gibson, Daryl John
    New Zealand's Fourth Labour Government undertook radical reforms of the public sector during the mid 1980s. This Government implemented policy changes associated with the neo-liberal ideology, resulting in re-regulation of the national economy and an affirmation of the role of the market in decision-making. The Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) is a product of this changing political environment; it recognises market forces as legitimate methods of resource allocation and resolution of land-use conflicts. This thesis investigates the potential of using economic instruments, in the form of transferable planning mechanisms, to allocate water and land resources under the RMA. Specifically, transferable development rights and transferable water rights are examined in the context of achieving desirable environmental outcomes. The RMA promotes sustainability in the management of natural and physical resources through the concept of sustainable management. Any policy using transferable rights to achieve planning objectives is required to meet sustainable management criteria. This thesis explores issues associated with the adoption of transferable rights as planning techniques. The exploratory nature of the research reflects the limited application of such mechanisms in practice in New Zealand. Transferable planning mechanisms were conceived and first implemented in the United States, which provides a base for defining principles and evaluating practice. Commentary on the American experience is used in the thesis to gauge the potential benefits of using transferable planning mechanisms in New Zealand. Three New Zealand-based case studies were examined in the empirical phase of research. The case study analysis concluded that transferable development rights can be exercised in New Zealand's rural-urban fringe environments in the form of transferable title rights. This adjustment to the transferable development right concept is a result of New Zealand's more restrictive institutional environment (when compared to the United States) with regard to landowners' development rights. However, transferable title rights can only function effectively under certain conditions. There must be a positive demand differential between the areas of preservation and development, in favour of the designated receiving area of title rights. This is the greatest impediment to the successful implementation of transferable title rights in New Zealand. The thesis research highlights that, there is extensive scope for the effective use of transferable water rights in New Zealand; these have fewer logistical problems and greater market certainty than the application of transferable title rights. Planners should recognise the potential use of nonattenuated property rights as a means of allocating resources sustainably and reducing externalities in resource use decision-making.
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    Shifting ground : an exploration of approaches to soil conservation under the Resource Management Act 1991 : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Resource and Environmental Planning at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1996) Regnault, Marilyn G
    The research considers how and to what extent soil conservation is changing under the Resource Management Act. Case study councils in the Hawke's Bay, Gisborne and Manawatu-Wanganui regions are used to illustrate these changes. A national perspective of the approach and direction councils are taking for soil conservation is also gained from analysis of regional policy statements and regional land management plans. The dominant underpinnings of soil conservation are examined at an international level. The move from government intervention and regulation, to devolved responsibility and increased public participation has seen a dramatic change in approaches and techniques taken for soil conservation. In New Zealand this shift in management style has been enabled by the environmental administration and legislative reforms of the 1980's. The devolution of responsibility for soil conservation to the regional government level, along with the advent of the Resource Management Act, has changed the focus and the planning process for soil conservation. Under the Resource Management Act's provisions, soil conservation is included as a management approach to achieve the broader objective of sustainable land management. The emphasis placed by the Act on integrated management has broadened the previously narrow objectives of soil conservation. Councils are observed to be struggling with the complexities involved in integrating natural resource management. The scope for flexibility within policies and plans has allowed diverse and numerous approaches and techniques to be taken throughout New Zealand for soil conservation. Regional differences have arisen out of this management regime due to physical and institutional differences. Regional differences in the availability of funding and resources are perceived to affect a councils' ability to effectively mitigate soil degradation. Because of these disparities, some councils have been better enabled to tailor new and innovative approaches, while others are inhibited by their regional circumstances. A common element of all councils' approaches is the move from prescriptive to co-operative style approaches. Such approaches encourage community understanding and commitment to participate in identifying and solving land degradation issues. The research discovers that a combination of co-operative and prescriptive approaches are most sucessful in achieving land management objectives. The research shows that regional monitoring needs much improvement to be able to assess the state of the land resource and the consequent success or effect of specific land management approaches. An improved monitoring regime requires regional and central government to work together to gather information and formulate a common set of objectives that can be applied to each region. Processes such as assessing the benefits and costs of approaches, considering alternatives, monitoring outcomes of plans and policies as well as environmental effects, enable councils to formulate comprehensive land management approaches. However, councils need to have the resources and skills, as well as the commitment, to fully undertake these processes.
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    Kaitiakitanga and the conservation and heritage management of the Kaituna River : a planning project presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Resource and Environmental Planning at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1998) Park, Matiu C
    This thesis investigates kaitiakitanga as an integral component of the Maori environmental management system and the theoretical and practical implications of this concepts incorporation in modern resource management, in particular the conservation and heritage management of the Kaituna River, Okere, Rotorua. With increasing attention being focused on the development of bicultural policies for resource management, this thesis pursues the effectiveness of New Zealand's environmental mandate as inclusive of Maori and Treaty of Waitangi concerns. Through the use of an extensive literature research and retroductive interviews, this thesis examines both the Maori and Western world-views and their resource management perspectives and practices. In terms of giving expression to kaitiakitanga, an investigation of the hierarchies, priorities and partnerships developed to resolve competing resource conflicts was undertaken, as well as the various legally based structures and mechanisms for processing and implementing partnership arrangements and recognising iwi rights and values. The Kaituna River was chosen as a case study because of the current ongoing resource management conflict between Maori and the Crown with respect to recreational use and commercial development versus Maori cultural and spiritual values. The case study complemented the findings of this research in that, despite the widespread formal recognition of kaitiakitanga by management agencies and the various statutory and non-statutory mechanisms that could be used to accord Maori management authority, there have been neither a sufficiency, nor an appropriate choice of formally established structures to allow Ngati Pikiao to exercise, as Treaty partners, their kaitiakitanga responsibilities. More specifically, the situation investigated at the Kaituna River established the current inability ofNew Zealand's political and judiciary systems to apply kaitiakitanga effectively as a mechanism for dealing with resource management issues involving Maori and the Crown. At present, kaitiakitanga is expressed in the RMA as a principle to which territorial authorities shall have "particular regard" in achieving the purpose of the Act It is to be effected through the requirement the RMA places on these authorities to "take into account" the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. The problem is though, as many Maori involved in resource management are realising, it is a requirement which those with responsibilities under the RMA may choose to readily avoid. Whether the kaitiakitanga role of hapu and iwi will become better understood, appreciated and given effect to by resource management agencies involved and the promised Treaty of Waitangi partnership is being affirmed still remains to be seen. While the case study was specific to the Kaituna River, the findings of this thesis could be relevant to any conflicting resource management situation between Maori and the Crown in New Zealand. The development of new principles and/or a new planning framework relating to the kawanatanga response needs to become consistent with New Zealand's dual mainstream planning heritage. Legal and constitutional adjustments may be needed to facilitate formal collaborative management structures and negotiated agreements at all levels.
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    Participation by non-experts in resource management decision-making : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Resource and Environmental Planning at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2013) Tucker, Penelope Ann
    The 2009 ‘simplification and streamlining’ amendments to the Resource Management Act 1991 changed the way proposals of national significance are processed. The most significant of these reforms were the establishment of an Environmental Protection Authority to manage national consenting processes, and the introduction of a fast-track, nine month processing timeframe where an application is to be decided by a board of inquiry. The national consenting process retains the same right of any person to participate in the decision-making process as for proposals decided through a conventional process, by a local authority. However, there is widespread concern that the size of the proposals decided by boards of inquiry, coupled with the strict time constraints for decision-making, reduces the opportunities for affected and interested community members, particularly those without relevant personal expertise or the means to employ technical, planning or legal advice, to participate in board of inquiry decision-making. Case study research comparing two consent processes, the Cambridge Expressway (a conventional consenting process) and Waterview Connection (a national consenting process), found that there were significantly greater barriers to participation by non-expert submitters in the national consenting process. These included difficulties in dealing with substantially increased quantities of documents and information during the process, particularly when coupled with limited and inflexible timeframes. The weight accorded to the contribution of non-expert submitters in comparison to expert evidence by the decision-makers was also significantly less in the report of the Board of Inquiry into the Waterview Connection proposal than in the decision of the Hearing Panel for the Cambridge Expressway.
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    He mahi whakamanakore : Destruction of indigenous heritage sites at Otuparae : a case study of the Otuparae headland development : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Resource and Environmental Planning, Massey University, Manawatu
    (Massey University, 2011) Simon, Hemopereki Hoani
    This thesis examines indigenous cultural heritage site destruction in Aotearoa, New Zealand. In particular, it examines what took place within a planning system to approve the destruction of the heritage site at Otuparae, near Taupo. This thesis seeks to identify what contributed to the decision to grant approval to developers without consultation with the local hapu, Ngati Rauhoto. The research is framed in a form of Kaupapa Maori Research (KMR) called whakawhanaungatanga. Analysis of critical ethnography, key actor interviews, participant observation, field notes in research journals, videos, and documents took place to gather data. A review of the colonial history of Ngati Tuwharetoa revealed that over time the Crown usurped the mana, power and sovereignty of Tuwharetoa. In doing so, the Crown left Tuwharetoa politically, socially, economically and culturally weak, forcing Tuwharetoa to enter into Crown-controlled and created legal and political frameworks. Additionally, the Crown instituted a governance model based on colonial thinking. This thesis contributes to the body of knowledge about the need to incorporate different worldviews into planning to achieve sustainable development. It does so by examining how the heritage protection frameworks, in particular the Historic Places Act 1993, the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) and the associated Crown agencies failed to meet their obligations, by neglecting to consult with the correct group and to meet their needs in terms of heritage protection. It then moves to provide a development framework for Ngati Tuwharetoa to better contribute to decision-making processes in the future based on the needs of hapu.
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    Landscape boundaries : an examination of the influence of environment court decisions on the practice of landscape assessment in Aotearoa/New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Resource and Environmental Planning at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2012) Read, Marion
    This project sought to answer the question, what influence have Environment Court decisions had on the practice of landscape assessment? A case study was undertaken of the practice of a number of leading landscape architects particularly relating to Section 6(b) of the RMA91. This case study used qualitative research methods involving both interviews and the interpretation of documentary evidence. The study has shown that Environment Court decisions have had both a clear and extensive influence on the practice of landscape assessment. In a positive sense the level of critique to which assessments are subject to within the legal system has resulted in an increased level of thoroughness. Aspects of the legal system, particularly the adversarial nature of the Court system, were seen as having a negative influence resulting in heightened levels of disagreement. The concepts of ‘outstandingness’ and ‘naturalness’ in relation to landscape are contentious concepts within the profession and appear to have arisen from the Act, rather than from within landscape architectural theory or practice. Practitioners showed a strong reliance on previous Environment Court decisions to support their conclusions. The dominant paradigm of landscape was found to be objectivist. This locates landscape qualities and values as inherent within the landscape. An alternative paradigm is the subjectivist or cultural paradigm. This locates landscape qualities and values within the human observer. It is considered that the application of the subjectivist paradigm would allow for truly objective analyses of landscape value. The slippery nature of the concept of landscape contributes to the tensions identified within the study. The focus on outstanding natural landscapes within the RMA91 promotes a focus on landskip, landscape as space and scenery. The wider structure of the RMA91 and its requirements for consultation promote a focus on landschaft, landscape as place and polity. In addition the dominance of the objectivist paradigm of landscape within the profession results in a focus on landskip. This results in the predominance of the expert approach to landscape assessment and in tensions between experts and communities in the management of landscapes.
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    Capital market implications of resource consent information in New Zealand listed company announcements : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Finance at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2011) Wirth, Carolyn Gail; Wirth, Carolyn Gail
    This thesis investigates the capital market impact of resource consent information disclosed in New Zealand listed company announcements from 1991 to 2007. Since 1991, New Zealand environmental law has required individuals and businesses to obtain resource consent approval to use resources or undertake development activities that may have potentially adverse environmental impacts. Wide-spread criticisms of excessive delays, uncertainties and compliance costs purportedly caused by the consenting process have motivated this study of the economic implications to New Zealand listed companies of resource consent information. This study adds to the New Zealand capital market literature, employing an event study approach that allows for rigorous, empirical testing of small samples that are problematic in small economy research. The impact of environmental regulatory delay on capital market reactions to capital expenditure announcements is investigated. A measure of the expected time to gain resource consent (regulatory) approval is developed and used as an indicator of expected resource consent compliance costs. The event study results indicate positive valuation effects from project announcements when the expected time to gain resource consent approval is long. The key findings imply that by undertaking voluntary capital expenditures with high environmental compliance costs, listed companies can create strategic advantages. The results also suggest that if New Zealand legislators are able to reduce environmental regulatory delays associated with capital expenditures through further legislative changes, then the opportunity for firms to earn economic profits may be diminished. Investor access to timely, financial resource consent information is argued to be problematic, consequently further investigations consider the capital market impact of announcements to the stock exchange that disseminate information on the progress of resource consent applications. The event study results indicate that resource consent announcements are newsworthy and provide timely, valuable information to the market. Further evidence suggests that media dissemination plays an important role in the price-adjustment process for news of resource consent successes. Given the prominence of environmental compliance issues for firms, the results of this thesis underscore the importance of timely disclosures of firm environmental risk management strategies and processes through stock exchange and press releases.
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    Councils' use of the RMA and LGA in coastal development decisions : towards sustainability : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Resource and Environment Planning at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2009) Bell, Angela Maureen
    The Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) gave councils a mandate and an obligation to promote sustainability. Along with this it also introduced an expectation that the environment will be better managed than previously. Evidence shows that the environment is continuing to be degraded. This is especially evident in the coastal environment where in the early 2000s there has been unprecedented development pressure. The addition of the Local Government Act in 2002 (LGA) has strengthened councils’ sustainability mandate by stipulating a sustainable development approach and supporting processes and principles. Because the RMA and LGA have a similar sustainability directive there has been a push to utilise the compatible strengths that the LGA offers to enhance the outcomes achieved through RMA decisions, therefore, integrating and aligning the LGA and RMA. This research used case studies, including interviews, to examine how councils use their RMA and LGA mandates in coastal development decisions. The research found that currently there is little integration of the LGA’s requirements and sustainability direction in RMA coastal subdivision decisions. The case study analysis showed that using the principles and processes in the LGA and also a council’s policies, strategies, and plans other than RMA documents would provide up to date policy direction and contextual information that would be useful for RMA decisions and could provide a more sustainable outcome if used. The case studies identified a significant number of barriers to achieving sustainability through the RMA, including that much of the policy direction in RMA planning documents is not considered in deliberations. A number of these barriers are also likely to reduce attempts to integrate and align the LGA and RMA, unless they are addressed.