Council decisions on the freshwater planning instrument and non-freshwater parts of the proposed Otago Regional Policy Statement 2021.

Council decisions have been notified on the proposed Otago Regional Policy Statement 2021 (pORPS). 

The pORPS is a single document consisting of two parts for the submissions and hearings process (as required by section 80A of the Resource Management Act [RMA] 1991):

1. a freshwater planning instrument, which covers the provisions relating directly to the maintenance or enhancement of freshwater quality or quantity and follows the freshwater planning process under section 80A of the RMA; and
   
   
2. a non-freshwater planning instrument for the remaining provisions (the non-FPI provisions), which follows the standard RMA, Schedule 1 submissions and hearings process.

Public notice 28 March 2024:
Decision released on proposed ORPS 2021 — freshwater parts

Public notice 30 March 2024: 
Decision released on proposed ORPS 2021 — non-freshwater parts

On 27 March 2024, Council made decisions on recommendations for both the freshwater planning instrument and non-freshwater planning instrument parts of the pORPS.

A record of these decisions is below.

The decisions versions of the pORPS:

Appeal period is now closed.

More information can be found on the pORPS 2021 Appeals page. 

• Report and recommendations of the Non-Freshwater and Freshwater Hearings Panels to the Otago Regional Council (includes Appendices One and Two, detailing the Panel’s deliberations on submissions and its recommendations)
• Hearing Panel’s addendum providing updates to the Panel report and appendices
• Hearing Panel’s report with addendum changes incorporated
• Appendix Three to the Panel’s report: Clean version of the proposed Otago Regional Policy Statement 2021 incorporating Hearing Panel recommendations (for convenience only, not an official part of the council process in this format)
• Appendix Four to the Panel’s report: Tracked changes version of the proposed Otago Regional Policy Statement 2021 showing Hearing Panel Recommendations
• Appendix Four updated with addendum changes incorporated 
• Appendix Five to the Panel’s report: Non-Freshwater Planning Instrument Hearings Panel Recommendations
  • Part 1: covering General submissions, and submissions on Introduction and General provisions, How the policy statement works, Interpretation, MW, RMIA and SRMR provisions
  • Part 2: covering submissions on AIR, CE, ECO, EIT, HAZ, HCV, LF, NFL and UFD provisions
• Appendix Six to the Panel’s report: Freshwater Planning Instrument - Hearings Panel Recommendations (covering submissions on the Freshwater Planning Instrument provisions)

Council adopted the recommendations of the Hearings Panel on the non-freshwater parts of proposed Otago Regional Policy Statement 2021 (excluding parts separately notified as a freshwater planning instrument) as its decision;

and

Council accepted each recommendation of the Freshwater Hearings Panel on the Proposed Freshwater Planning Instrument Part of the Proposed Otago Regional Policy Statement 2021. The decision on each of the freshwater planning instrument recommendations can be found below.