Whangārei District Council will be briefed on progress setting up the new planning body at a council briefing in Whangārei yesterday.
Meeting papers presented to Whangārei councillors estimate that preparing the spatial plan will cost about $3.55m over three years, including contingency allowances, and require around 11 fulltime-equivalent staff.
The regional council is expected to contribute about $2.71m, with the remainder shared among the district councils.
Under current estimates, Whangārei District Council would contribute about $400,000, Far North District Council about $315,000, and Kaipara District Council about $129,000.
Creating the new body and plan is required under the Government’s resource management reforms.
The plan will create a single Northland-wide strategic planning framework spanning the four councils and bringing together long-term decisions currently addressed through multiple council plans and planning processes.
It is expected to influence where future housing subdivisions, industrial land, transport corridors, major infrastructure, renewable energy developments and environmental protection areas are located across Northland.
The plan will also help guide future council planning rules and investment decisions, meaning its effects could be felt by communities throughout the region for decades.
In yesterday’s Whangārei District Council briefing papers, staff recommend each of Northland’s four councils appoint one voting member with expertise in te ao Māori and Māori development, with an alternate member, to the new committee.
The committee would be more than 60% larger than the current eight-member Resource Management Joint Committee from which it would evolve, growing to 13 members: eight elected council representatives, four appointed Māori representatives and one ministerial appointee.
Whangārei District Council officers say the four Māori members option provides broader regional coverage, stronger connections with iwi and hapū, greater diversity of experience and less reliance on one or two individuals to represent Māori perspectives from across Northland.
The draft councils’ agreement for setting up the new committee “provides for participation beyond the statutory minimum, particularly through earlier involvement while the spatial plan is being developed”.
This includes provisions for technical input through a proposed Tangata Whenua Technical Advisory Group. Targeted stakeholder and community engagement may also be part of this.
The Planning Act 2026 requires the new committee to include expertise in both te ao Māori and Māori development, although councils must decide how that requirement is met.
Options outlined in the meeting papers range from appointing four Māori representatives to appointing two, one or none, with elected members instead providing the required expertise.
The briefing comes as Northland’s four councils continue progressing one of the most significant Government-directed changes to New Zealand’s planning system, despite uncertainty over who will ultimately lead the country following Saturday’s election.
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop, who spearheaded the reforms, appears unlikely to return to Parliament after election-night results showed him losing his electorate seat. An expected overhang means National’s projected allocation of list seats is unlikely to be sufficient for him to return as a list MP.
The final make-up of the next Government will not be known until special votes are counted and official results are released on November 27.
Under the recommended Māori representation model, members would be nominated through councils’ existing Māori engagement and advisory processes. For Whangārei District Council, that could involve recommendations through Te Kārearea Strategic Partnership Standing Committee and existing hapū engagement mechanisms.
Whangārei council staff say appointees would ideally bring expertise spanning Māori development, governance, planning, environmental management, local government, te reo Māori and regional relationships.
The proposed governance arrangements are expected to return to the Resource Management Joint Committee in December as councils move towards finalising the structure of the new statutory body and a regional process agreement.
The joint committee, which held its first meeting in June, brings together representatives from the region’s four councils to oversee the transition to the Government’s new post-RMA planning system.
The committee’s terms of reference provide for it to transition towards the statutory Spatial Plan Committee once the new arrangements are in place.
It is chaired by Far North councillor Felicity Foy, with Kaipara Deputy Mayor Gordon Lambeth as deputy chair.
Other committee members are Whangārei councillors Crichton Christie and Tangiwai Baker, Far North District Council Deputy Mayor Chicky Rudkin, Kaipara councillor Rachael Williams, and Northland Regional Council councillors Geoff Crawford and Amy Macdonald.
■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
