Linkedin
Twitter
Online account payment
Client toolkit
Wynn Williams are one of the New Zealand's pre-eminent law firms, with a significant depth and range of resources across many legal disciplines.
Search this website
Home
Expertise
Sectors
Services
Publications
Legal articles & publications
Other publications
Firm news
Video Updates
People
About
Client Toolkit - About AML
Client care
Health & safety at Wynn Williams
Community
Your feedback
New Zealand
Doing Business in New Zealand
Investing in New Zealand
Living in New Zealand
Events
Careers
Current Vacancies
Contact us
Close menu
Search for:
Summary of Decisions Requested on Proposed Plans - the Importance of Getting it Right
Published: 21/01/2013
Join our mailing list
By: Amanda Douglas
To view this article as a pdf please click
here
.
Many local authorities around the country are in the process of reviewing regional and district plans, prior to notifying proposed new versions of those documents. Interested persons will be able to lodge submissions and further submissions on the proposed plans.
The Council produces a Summary of the Decisions Requested ("Summary") in the submissions. For a number of reasons, it is very important that the Summary be a fair and accurate portrayal of the decisions requested. Councils and submitters need to ensure that that the Summary correctly summarises the decisions requested in submissions.
The Summary enables those people who may wish to make a further submission to understand quickly whether an original submission is one which is of interest to them. A further submission may be made in support of, or in opposition to, an original submission. Having to read all of the submissions in full, in the short timeframe allowed for making a further submission, would be an onerous task. The Summary prepared by the Council expedites the process of making further submissions. The Summary must fairly and accurately summarise the original submissions, so that it can safely be relied upon by interested parties.
Also, if the Summary inaccurately summarises a submission, that will limit the ambit of the decision which may be made in relation to the submission. This was the finding of the Environment Court in
Christchurch International Airport Limited and Canterbury Regional Council v Christchurch City Council
, which was upheld on appeal by the High Court in
Healthlink South Limited v Christchurch International Airport Limited and Canterbury Regional Council.
1
In that case, the decision requested in a submission was to rezone land from "Rural" to "Living 1 (rural and other activities)". The reference to "(rural and other activities)" was an error; it should have read "(residential and other activities)". The Council's Summary of Decisions Requested simply repeated what was said in the submission, that is, "Living 1 (rural and other activities)".
The error became evident at the hearing, when the submitter sought to gain zoning which would enable it to establish residential and other activities on the land. Interested parties who opposed residential zoning on the land had not lodged submissions in opposition, relying upon the Summary for their understanding that the submitter was only seeking to establish rural and other activities upon the site, but not residential activities.
The Courts held that, when the submission was read as a whole, it was clear that the reference to "(rural and other activities)" was a mistake, and that the submitter was seeking to establish "residential and other activities" on the land. It was said by the Courts that the Council should have realised that there was a mistake in the decision requested in the Healthlink submission, and should have produced a Summary of the decision requested which made it clear that Healthlink was seeking to have a zoning which enabled residential activities on the land.
This is a very high standard to be expected from Councils; they are effectively required to second-guess the submitter to correct errors in the submission. If that does not occur, then the submitter will not be able to obtain the decision which it really wants. The ambit of the submission will be limited to that which is expressed in the Council's Summary, even if the submission itself, when read as a whole, has a wider ambit.
So, there is an impact upon both the original submitter and potential further submitters from a failure by Council to accurately summarise the decision sought. Potential further submitters may not realise the full extent of what is being sought in the submission, and fail to lodge a further submission to protect their interests. For an original submitter, an inaccurate summary of the decision requested may prevent the decision-maker from granting what is really sought in the submission.
Councils need to be thorough and accurate in summarising the decisions requested. It is generally a very large and somewhat tedious task, but it is an important one. There is no statutory timeframe within which submissions must be summarised – although there is a requirement that decisions on submissions are made within two years of a proposed plan being notified.
Councils should ensure that their schedules and resourcing gives officers sufficient time to produce a fair and accurate Summary. Ideally, a draft Summary for each submissions should be sent to the relevant submitter, so that it can be checked over by the submitter prior to being notified by the Council. That practice will help to avoid the unnecessary expense and delay which results when Summaries have to be corrected and re-notified, with additional time allowed for lodging further submissions.
It is very important for submitters to check the Council's Summary of decisions requested, to ensure that their submissions are fairly and accurately summarised. If the Summary is not accurate, the Council should be alerted to the problem as soon as possible. If an incorrect Summary has been notified, then the Summary, or at least that part of it which is inaccurate, will need to be re-notified, and the time for filing further submissions in relation to the re-notified Summary extended.
If you have any questions about the process of lodging and summarising submissions on RMA plans, contact the Resource Management and Local Government Team at Wynn Williams.
1
Christchurch International Airport Limited and Canterbury Regional Council v Christchurch City Council
C77/99, which was upheld on appeal by the High Court in
Healthlink South Limited v Christchurch International Airport Limited and Canterbury Regional Council
AP14/99
Back to the Legal Articles & Publications
Share this page via social media
Print this page
Share this page by e-mail
Share this page on social media:
Recipient
Sender's e-mail
Captcha (anti-spam)
Enter security code:
Top
Wynn Williams Client Toolkit
Online services
Online account payment
Close menu
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with stylesheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so. The latest version of
Firefox
,
Safari
or
Google Chrome
will work best if you're after a new browser.