The role of human actors in influencing district plan provisions and resource consent decisions: A case study from South Canterbury : A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Planning

Abstract

The relationship between rural and urban land is one that considers rural land to be transformable for the benefit of the urban environment. Consequently, lifestyle allotment subdivision has resulted in the residentialisation of rural areas. The issue with such land use change is that there is a significant loss of versatile soils and perhaps more significantly, the potential for reverse sensitivity to become an issue for existing rural land users. Lifestyle allotment subdivision is achieved in a New Zealand context under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) and guided by the provisions of District Plans. Those provisions are prepared to manage, and resource consents are sought in order to achieve, lifestyle allotment subdivision. However, the process through which lifestyle allotments are achieved provides the opportunity for one to exercise agency to influence the provisions and decisions. The purpose of this research is to explore human agency within the context of the RMA and identify how provisions and decisions are influenced. The Timaru District Council and Mackenzie District Council in South Canterbury were chosen as case studies and were used to examine the key actors during the preparation process of their respective District Plans. It was found that individuals played key roles in producing quite contrasting District Plans despite the requirement that both had to be prepared in accordance with the RMA. Four resource consent decisions for lifestyle allotment subdivisions were then selected from each Council to ascertain how agency can occur under different District Plan provisions. This also enabled a comparison of an effects-based approach to planning (Mackenzie District Council) verses an activities-based approach (Timaru District Council). The results identify key actors who shaped the provisions and decision-making processes. By deconstructing the context, the constraints the RMA places on the individual exercise of agency in the planning processes is illustrated. The more powerful actors were typically those who understood planning and were in positions which enabled their input to be valued. Thematic throughout the research was the ability of agency, within the context of the RMA, to shape the environment in which we live. Thus, the analysis deconstructs how place is shaped in rural New Zealand.