Strategic and spatial plans
Released 30 Jul 2010
Richard Gardner, Federated Farmers policy advisor
Local authorities have invented a number of new planning techniques, spatial plans and strategic plans. Federated Farmers, vigilant to ensure farming interests are protected, is keeping a close watch on how those new techniques are used.
Spatial and strategic plans raise similar concerns to those aired in this column recently, the practice whereby regional councils set a policy, then respond to critics who point to impracticalities by saying it is up to lower-level authorities - city or district councils - to determine how it should be implemented. I called it "buck passing". Problems arise because the policy can only be implemented one way, most often by obliging the lower-level authorities to implement particular rules.
Similar concerns are raised by spatial plans and strategic plans.
A spatial plan provides a broad, long-term strategy for the growth and development of, a region and lays down policies, priorities, programmes and allocations of land to implement that strategy.
The strategic plan typically develops the spatial plan, for example by prescribing more detailed policies for a particular land allocation in the spatial plan.
These documents then feed into the planning instruments that directly affect people, regional and district plans, in which the rules relating to land use are set.
On the face of it, this type of planning looks like a good idea but problems arise from the quality of information used to set high-level strategic directions. There is much less scrutiny than there is of the other information that feeds into regional and district plans.
Notably, no opportunity is provided to challenge them in the Environment Court, so it's much easier for councils to give effect to their grand (if not grandiose) ideas, as a Rodney District case illustrates.
The Rodney council recently notified a "rural strategy" which relies heavily on a recent, untested, landscape study in setting the proposed strategic direction for rural Rodney. There are clear differences between this study and other studies that have been subject to robust scrutiny.
Yet the only opportunity to challenge the study is by making submissions to the council about the strategy. This is not robust process.
To discuss any of these issues, please call 0800 FARMING (327 646)
