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 2021). The public notices, dated 30 March 2024, can be accessed on the ORC website. Submitters have been individually notified.

The pORPS 2021 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.

On 27 March 2024, Council made decisions on recommendations for both the Freshwater planning instrument and non-freshwater planning instrument parts of the pORPS 2021.

A record of these decisions are below.

People who made submissions on the pORPS 2021 have rights of appeal, which differ depending on which instrument was submitted on. If you submitted on the pORPS 2021, you should have received notification via email, giving further information on your appeal rights. If you were a submitter on the pORPS 2021 but have not received this message, please contact ORC by email: policy@orc.govt.nz, or by phone on 03 474 0827 or 0800 474 082.

The appeal period for lodging appeals to the High Court against the decision of Otago Regional Council on the freshwater planning instrument parts of the Proposed Otago Regional Policy Statement 2021 ends on 24 April 2024.

The appeal period for lodging appeals to the Environment Court against the decision of Otago Regional Council on the non-freshwater planning instrument parts of the Proposed Otago Regional Policy Statement 2021 ends on 16 May 2024.

Note: These dates have been calculated by reference to when the ORC emailed all submitters notice of its decisions on the pORPS 2021. The latest date by which each individual submitter may lodge an appeal to the High Court, is 15 working days after the notice was served on that submitter or, in the case of appeals to the Environment Court, 30 working days after the notice was served on that submitter, as set out in those notices to submitters.

Find more information on the Appeals on the Proposed RPS 21.

• 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)
  
  
• 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 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)
  
  
• Hearing Panel’s addendum providing updates to the Panel report and appendices
  
  
• Hearing Panel’s report with addendum changes incorporated
  
  
• Appendix Four updated with addendum changes incorporated

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.