John MacDonald: Your house is going to be your castle again - Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

There’s a lot to take in with these planning law changes. But what it comes down to is the Government wants people to be able to do more with their own property with less red tape. 

If you want to do something that has no impact on anyone else, you’ll be able to do it. Your house, your castle. 

That’s where there could be a few sticking points, because who determines what impacts others and what doesn’t? But overall, I like what the Government is doing. 

And I know it will have looked for some of the most extreme examples of the current planning laws to sell the changes it’s making. Which is to ditch the Resource Management Act and replace it with a planning act and a natural environment act. 

But you can’t argue with the minister responsible, Chris Bishop, when he says we need to see the end of developers being told one thing by one council planner and something different by another – such as one planner saying front doors have to face the street and another saying they can’t. 

What the Government is saying is that the days of council planners playing god are over. And amen to that. 

So the sorts of things it’s going to let us do without needing consents are things like adding a balcony or a deck or building a garage. 

Chris Bishop says he knows of a guy who wanted to replace a garage on his property but spent nine months arguing with the council, because the council didn’t like the look of the garage. 

It seems a lot of people are saying the devil will be in the detail. And one of the sticking points or potential bones of contention I see is where do you draw the line at what impacts others and what doesn’t. 

For example: the Government wants me to be able to build a deck at my place without a consent, providing it has no impact on others. But what if building that deck means I can see over the fence more easily? 

Overall, though, I’m in favour of letting people do more with their own property with less red tape. 

But how do you feel about it? 

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