18 March 2025
Wendy Pond
[FYI request #30147 email]
Dear Wendy
Official information Request for District Plan Appeals Version 2021
I refer to your official information request dated 19 February 2025 for information on the
legal status of the District Plan Appeals Version 2021. Please see below responses from
Council’s Strategy and Policy team.
The Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) sets out the different versions of district plans
that local authorities may produce. The table below shows this along with the corresponding
clause of the Act.
TCDC plan
Version of the plan
RMA provision
Purpose of the plan version
version
Operative District Plan
Schedule 1 cl 17(3) and cl 20
April 2010
Plans are made operative once al of the
appeals on them are determined. Local
Authorities make plans operative through
Council resolution and by affixing the
common seal.
The operative version is important as some
of its rules will still apply (wil be given
weight) right up until a new plan is made
fully operative.
Proposed District Plan
Section 73(1), Schedule 1 cl 2 December 2013
This version of the plan shows proposed
and cl 5
provisions (objectives, policies, rules and
methods). These are the provisions that
people make submissions and further
submissions about.
District Plan – Decisions Schedule 1 cl 10 and cl 11
April 2016
This version shows the provisions of the
Version
plan that were amended by decisions
made on the submissions during the
hearings process.
District Plan – Appeals Section 86F, Schedule 1 cl 10 July 2016
This version is annotated with the
Version
and cl 11
provisions that have been appealed. The
provisions in this version of the plan are
operative unless they are annotated. The
role of this plan is to indicate the legal
effect of rules.
District Plan – Operative Schedule 1 cl 17(2)
March 2024
At the start of 2024 only two appeals
in Part Version
remained. The Council decided to make
the parts of the plan that were being
“treated as operative”, fully operative, that
is, it approved the plan in part.
Operative District Plan
Schedule 1 cl 17(3) and cl 20
?
One appeal on the plan relating to the
plan provisions to apply at New Chums
Beach, is extant. The plan cannot be made
fully operative until this appeal is
determined.
District Office: 515 Mackay Street, Private Bag, Thames 3540, New Zealand P
+64 7 868 0200, F +64 7 868 0234 E [Thames-Coromandel District Council request email]
OFFICES AT: COROM ANDEL • WHITIANGA • WHANGA M ATA
WWW.TCDC.GOV T.NZ
During the appeals phase of a district plan process, appeals are resolved through negotiation
and Environment Court consent orders or Court decisions. The plan is amended as those
decisions are handed down by the Court. The appeal annotations are removed and the
provisions in the plan are updated as directed by the Court. When this happens, Councils
must treat the new resolved provisions as operative provisions. Previous versions of that
rule cannot be considered, nor can any weight be accorded to the operative plan when
making a decision on a resource consent application. We are not required to produce a new
version of the plan throughout the process of resolving appeals to the plan.
To answer your questions:
Council has cited the Thames Coromandel District Plan Appeals Version 2021 as its
authority to issue resource consents.
I am unaware of the specific circumstances of this citation but the resource consent in
question was likely issued under the provisions of the district plan at that point in time in
2021. The citation was likely used to identify the rules at the point in time when the consent
was issued (given the provisions would have been in a state of flux as they were in the
process of being amended by the Court).
1. Why is the Thames Coromandel District Plan Appeals Version 2021 not listed on
Council's website when recounting the history of the District Plan?
The version is not listed because the RMA enables the versions of the plan that are in the
table above. The year of issue of the Appeals version remains 2016.
2. What is the legal status of the Thames Coromandel District Plan Appeals Version
2021.
The legal status of the plan in 2021 was “Appeals version”. That means that:
the provisions had legal effect (ie regard could be had to them when making
decisions on a resource consent application) because decisions had been made and
publicly notified on the provisions (s.86B(1) of the RMA);
some provisions were treated as operative (ie not subject to appeal). For any such
provisions, any previous corresponding rule in the 2010 operative plan would be
inoperative (s.86F(1) of the RMA); and
some provisions were subject to appeal (which means both the annotated appealed
provision and the corresponding provision in the 2010 operative plan would need to
be considered when making a decision on a resource consent application). In these
situations, the appealed provision had legal effect in accordance with s.86B(1), but
the corresponding provision of the 2010 operative plan remained operative until the
appeal was resolved.
3. What is the legal status of Section 37A as published in 2022 - 2024.
In 2022-2024, section 37A was treated as operative under s.86F(1) of the RMA because al
appeals related to those provisions had been resolved. In March 2024 when the plan
became “operative in part”, the provisions of Section 37A became ful y operative.
That means that once the final appeal on Section 37A was resolved, the provisions in that
section would have been “treated as operative”. Even though the plan itself remained an
“Appeals version”, section 86F of the RMA requires councils to treat rules as operative
where the appeals have been determined.
4. Please explain why the Thames Coromandel District Plan Appeals Version 2021
does not have legal status.
The Appeals version of the plan incorporating al the changes made to resolve appeals up to
2021 had legal effect under the RMA.
5. Please explain what course of action should be fol owed with regard to documents
that depend on the Appeals Version 2021.
Any resource consent issued under the provisions of the Appeals version of the plan
(regardless of the date of issue) is a valid, legal y binding resource consent, unless it has
lapsed.
Yours sincerely
Jen Amner
Legal Coordinator
