Whanganui District Council chief executive David Langford said the council’s primary concern with the proposed legislation was the potential loss of local voice.
“Instead of directly being in control of making our own plans, we’re going to have to go to another committee and advocate on our community’s behalf to make sure our priorities are put into the plan,” he said.
Langford was also concerned the focus on making the consent process quicker and cheaper would come at the detriment of the environment.
“There needs to be that balance maintained between speed and getting resource consents processed quickly but also making sure we continue to safeguard the environment,” Langford said.
He said care needed to be taken to make sure poor quality developments weren’t being rushed through the system under the idea of fast being good no matter what.
Whanganui & Partners chief executive Hannah Middleton said they were mindful of the shift towards a nationally focused system.
“It is essential that we continue our advocacy with the central government so that the needs of our regional economy are understood and accounted for,” she said.
“Ideally the RMA reforms would build surety about the type of development that is possible and appropriate in our region.”
Before the impact of the changes arrives, Middleton said Whanganui & Partners would need to become familiar with the regional frameworks to determine what type of development would be possible in Whanganui and how the reforms would work alongside Te Awa Tupua legislation.
Rangitīkei Mayor Andy Watson had the same concerns as Langford for his district.
“The potential loss of a local voice through a regional model is concerning to me, my preference would have been that the local voice is held loud and true,” Watson said.
However, he said the council was in support of the reforms.
“It’s been modified a number of times, but it’s been due for a reform.”
For Watson, the biggest issues of the current RMA are how long it takes to get consent, how much it costs, and how easily the current system can be abused.
Like Langford, Watson said the Rangitīkei council will look to submit to the select committee about the reforms.
While local government thought the streamlining of the consent process could be problematic for them, representatives of the private sector were in favour of it.
Director of eHaus Whanganui, Baden Brown, echoed Watson’s statement on the process of applying for consent being too long.
He said the lack of clarity for a lot of people applying for consent is what caused applications to go on for longer than expected.
Brown said the reduction of plans would make the process of getting resource consent much clearer, which could only be a plus.
“I like what they’re saying about reducing the number ... that makes a lot of sense to me,” he said.
However, he would be waiting until the new legislature was implemented to pass judgment on whether it was an improvement.
Federated Farmers Manawatū and Rangitīkei president Murray Holdaway said at this stage the reform looked more focused towards urban developments rather than rural work.
“We’re not convinced at this point that it’s going to be any improvement for rural resource management stuff from what we’ve got currently,” he said.
He said what farmers in the region want from reforms, much like builders, is more clarity on the process of getting resource consent.
As well as this farmers were hoping for the process to be more economically efficient.
