Changes to the Plan

Changes to the Marlborough Sounds Resource Management Plan

From time to time, issues arise in managing Marlborough's resources that mean it is necessary to review resource management plan provisions so that sustainable outcomes can be achieved. Managing the Marlborough Sounds Resource Management Plan is very much a process of rolling review and it is expected that plan review work, involving one or more topical issues, will be occurring almost continually.

Plan Changes (PC) and Variations (V)

Council may make changes to the Plan through a process of notifying a change, calling and hearing submissions, making decisions on those submissions and dealing with any appeals that may arise. At the end of the process the changes are made operative and they become part of the Plan. Click below to see the operative or proposed changes.

There are two ways in which Council's Resource Management Plans can be amended, by a change or by a variation.  A change is any change made to an operative plan, while a change made to a proposed plan is a variation. While the majority of the Marlborough Sounds Resource Management Plan is operative but there are a few parts which are not operative as they are still under appeal. There are currently changes proposed to both the operative part of the plan (plan changes) and the proposed part of the plan (variations).

Both plan changes and variations must follow the process set out for each in the First Schedule of the Resource Management Act 1991. Under the Resource Management Act 1991 as soon as a plan change or variation is notified Council is required to have regard to the proposed change or variation. Some of the provisions of the plan change or variation may affect the type of information or consent that is required for a proposal or activity.

The following operative changes have been made to the Marlborough Sounds Resource Management Plan and have been incorporated into the PLAN. The individual details of each operative changes is contained in the table below.  Links to the reports are provided in the status column.

The following changes have been proposed for the Marlborough Sounds Resource Management Plan and have not yet been made operative. The individual details of each proposed change is contained in the table below.

No.	Proposed Changes	Status	Description of the change
V2	Coastal Occupancy Charges	Notified 4/5/00 Submissions 2/6/00 Summary 31/8/00 Further Submissions 28/9/00 Hearing 6/11/00 Decision 18/1/01 Withdrawn 31/5/07 Overturned Currently Under Appeal	The RMA requires Councils to place a statement in their Regional Coastal Plans either setting out a coastal occupancy charges regime or to say they will not do so. Variation 3 inserts a new section into the Plan which in essences states that the Council considers the charges are justified, however there are a number of issues which need to be dealt with before a charging regime is introduced.
PC13	Special Subdivision Rules	Notified 21/4/05 Submissions 20/5/05 Summary 9/6/05 Further Submissions 8/7/05 Hearing 19-20/9/05 Decision 8/12/05 Currently Under Appeal	The Plan has a range of subdivision rules applying to each of the different zones. There are also special subdivision rules, which essentially allow non-compliance with discretionary activity allotment sizes to be assessed as discretionary activities, rather than non-complying. A question of interpretation over the status of special subdivision provisions in Rural Zones has resulted in a need for the provisions to be clarified through a plan change. The proposed change is to return the Plan to a state for special subdivisions in the Rural One Zone that existed immediately prior to the Plan becoming operative.
PC15	Oyster Bay, Port Underwood	Notified 30/11/06 Schedule of Changes to the Marlborough Sounds Resource Management Plan Report Prepared by Marlborough District Council Connell Wagner Report Please note that the appendices are not available electronically. Public_Notice 15/2/07(226kb) Further submissions close 23/3/07 Submission Summary-Oyster_Bay-Feb_2007 (1mb) Hearing 24-25 July 2007 Decision 12/10/07 Public Notice 25/10/07 Appealed 23/11/07 Currently Under Appeal	To rezone approximately 26 hectares of land legally described as Lot 6 DP 11879 and a portion of Pt Sec Blk XII Arapawa SD in Oyster Bay, Port Underwood from Rural One to Sounds Residential. The proposed Change is to include a standard in Subdivision Rule 27.2.1 requiring that flood mitigation works to a 2% Annual Exceedance Probability (ie a 1.50 year return period standard) have been completed to the satisfaction of the Council's Rivers Engineer.  New conditions are proposed under Subdivision Rule 27.2.5 for the vesting of land for maintenance of flood mitigation works and for the provision of parking for boat trailers and vehicles.