Bruce Weir: Urban planner and strategic development expert on the RMA reforms

An urban planner's giving the proposed Resource Management Act a big thumbs up, calling the reforms awesome and fantastic.   

The Government's confirmed the current RMA will be replaced by two pieces of legislation, one for the environment and one for planning. 

They'll be phased in by 2029.  

Independent urban planner and strategic development expert Bruce Weir told Andrew Dickens there will always be hiccups, but the changes are great.  

He says the compensation element of the changes could be a headache, however previous planning rules were frustrating and full of nonsense. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, the government's dropped a two hundred and fifty page
monster to replace the RMA, the Resource Management Act. It
wants two new laws, one for planning, one for the environment,
and it wants clearer rules and what councils can and
can't regulate. It's estimated this will have the number of consents.
It's estimated this will save thirteen billion dollars in costs
over thirty years, but some people are worried that the

(00:21):
environment could still could get down damage. Bruce Weir is
an independent urban planner and strategic development expert, and it
joins me. Now, good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Good morning, Andrew, so very good.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
This is a generational change and everyone's been talking about
reform of the RMA forever, ever since they came in
in nineteen ninety one. So what's your reaction to it.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Oh, it's great, it's awesome, fantastic.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Yeah, no downside at all.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Ah. Look, there will always be coups of these things
when they come in. You know, the stuff about compensation
is going to be a bit of a headache. But
no med league people. There's been so much nonsense going
on in planning and people have rightly been frustrated with
what's been going on.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
So the very first email I got in my inbox
yesterday after the announcement at one o'clock came from Forest
and Bird who said this will negatively impact on New
Zealand's environment and that there's not enough safeguards and that's
why the RMA was that was developed and made so
monstrously huge in the in the first place. What do
you reckon to that?

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Oh, look, I think the main thing that I see.
The biggest improvement here is that there's a planning tribune
that you can go to a few if everybody's unhappy
and there's a big issue, there's there's somewhere you can
go to. The problem we have at the moment is
it sort of almost gets so lit tous that it

(01:52):
favors those who have a lot of money. And so
what happens is that you can get help. And there's
cases I've been involved with for years, years and years
going through where those who have a lot of capital
can canstall a process. It's really frustrating even for councils.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
No I understand, I understand. I know a number of
planners for them as well. So there we go, But
what about the risk of people now feeling that they
can put up whatever they want, wherever they want on
their property, and we end out with a terrible cave
creek scenario.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
You know, look, there's if you take an urban environments,
what we've done is we're in a strange sort of way.
We've gone back to where we used to have a
Town and Country Planning Act, way way way back, and
we've gone back to that. We've said, now an urban areas,
there's certain rules out on the countryside. There's a different

(02:50):
process fundamentally, that's how it goes. And if you take
the former, you have a volumetric control, you have a
box and we already have that. You know, you have
recession controls and height limits, and you go for it.
You know, build it, do it all right, brutals limited constraint.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
I gotta go Brice for more from early edition with
Ryan Bridge.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
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