RAMMING THROUGH THE RMA CHANGES

Second, on a more serious note, the Government has introduced its new RMA changes and is currently going through its select committee process. I spent 40 minutes commuting to the airport Sudima Hotel, only to be given about 2 minutes to speak. What a farce. The whole process to fundamentally change the way the City Planning works has been a typical rush job.

I believe the changes introduced by the Resource Management (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Bill appears to make it easier for developers to do whatever they like and harder for the community to be involved. There is already huge frustration in local communities about how hard it is to participate in city planning matters. The bill will make that worse by reducing the notification requirements and by putting barriers in place such as security of costs.

The concern is that many in the community are unaware of the changes. It real terms if the bill becomes law, it basically it means much much easier for things like: big orange blobs next to nature reserves, ugly skyscrapers along the coast, and low quality high density housing projects that destroy local neighbourhoods. The irony of course is that these things are happening already.

I agree it’s time the RMA was changed, but it should be to offer better protection for the environment rather than reduce it. You can find the Governments view at www.mfe.govt.nz/rma/central/amendments/