Urban Design Stocktake of Resource Management Plans and Policies
Summary Report

• About this Report
• Assessment Process
• Key Findings
• Regional Policy Statements
• Metropolitan council District Plans
• Provincial Council Plans
• Rural Council Plans
• Overall Trends
• Overalll Gaps
• Appendix 1: Research Methodology

Urban Design Stocktake of Resource Management Plans and Policies: Summary Report

In 2008, the Ministry for the Environment engaged MWH New Zealand Ltd to investigate the nature and extent of urban design related provisions in local authority plans and policy statements prepared under the Resource Management Act. This report presents a summary of that research. The full research report is also available.

1.  About this Report

In late 2008, the Ministry for the Environment commissioned consultants MWH New Zealand Ltd (MWH) to investigate the nature of urban design related provisions in local authority plans and policy statements prepared under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA). The aim was to provide baseline information on how local authorities are incorporating urban design into their various RMA documents. The research was undertaken between December 2008 and April 2009. It is important to note that the research was limited to providing a snapshot of the level of inclusion of urban design provisions in local authority RMA planning documents at that time, and not to investigating the reasons for the results found.

The full research report Urban Design Stocktake of Resource Management Plans and Policies is available on the Ministry for the Environment’s website.

This report summarises key findings from the research report. It will be of particular interest to local authority staff, councillors and others working with plans and policies under the RMA.

1.1  This report and other Ministry for the Environment workstreams

This report supports the implementation of the New Zealand Urban Design Protocol. The Urban Design Protocol is a voluntary commitment by central and local government, property developers and investors, design professionals, education institutes and others to create quality urban design in New Zealand towns and cities.

Under the banner of the Urban Design Protocol, the Ministry for the Environment has produced a suite of documents including:

• New Zealand Urban Design Protocol
• The Value of Urban Design
• Urban Design Case Studies
• Urban Design Case Studies: Local Government
• Urban Design Toolkit
• Review of Urban Design Case Law
• A Survey of Local Government Authorities Urban Design Capability.

The above documents were used as background material in preparing this report and are all available on the Ministry for the Environment’s website.

The full research report provides baseline information that can be used to inform future Ministry for the Environment policy analysis.

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