A history of environmental planning

• October 1993: The Proposed Canterbury Regional Policy Statement (CRPS) was notified, as required under the Resource Management Act 1991.
• June 1998: The first CRPS became operative.
• February 2007: We began a formal review of the 1998 CRPS through the 'Our Changing Environment' report.
• July 2007: Proposed Change 1 was notified to guide long-term growth and development in Greater Christchurch to 2041.
• June 2007: A proposed replacement CRPS was notified, marking the start of the second-generation RPS.
• October 2011: Proposed Change 1 was revoked and replaced by Chapter 12A (Greater Christchurch) under the Christchurch Earthquake Recovery Act 2011.
• January 2013: The new CRPS 2013 became operative, replacing the 1998 version.
• December 2013: Chapter 6 (Greater Christchurch) was added through the Christchurch Land Use Recovery Plan (LURP).
• June – July 2015: Amendments under LURP Action 46 strengthened policies for high-hazard and coastal management.
• November 2015: Chapter 8 was amended to support the Lyttelton Port Recovery Plan.
• April 2016: CRPS Map 4 was updated to reflect post-earthquake coastline and river mouth changes.
• August 2017: CRPS Map A was amended to enable redevelopment under the Cranford Regeneration Plan.
• December 2018: Chapter 6 was amended under the Greater Christchurch Regeneration Act 2016 to allow a metropolitan facility on Yaldhurst Road.
• July 2019: Minimum housing targets were added to Chapter 6 as required by the NPS on Urban Development Capacity 2016.
• January 2021: Change 1 to Chapter 6 was notified to identify future housing development areas in Greater Christchurch.
• July 2022: Change 1 became operative, incorporating housing bottom lines from the NPS-UD 2020.
• September 2022: Chapter 6 was amended further in accordance with updated housing requirements.
• Early 2024: A ten-year review of the 2013 CRPS was initiated as required under the RMA.
• October 2024: The RPS was amended to include updated housing capacity figures from 2023.
• November 2024: Development of the Draft CRPS was paused following legislative changes affecting freshwater planning.

Pausing the Canterbury Regional Policy Statement (CRPS)

In 2020, the National Policy Statement - Freshwater Management (NPSFM) was released and early assessments indicated parts of the CRPS would need to be reviewed to give effect to it. Consequently, scoping work towards a review of the Regional Planning Framework, including the CRPS, began. This was paused by our Council in 2023/2024, as per direction from Central Government in 2025.

While the replacement CRPS itself may no longer be needed, our groundwork with Papatipu Rūnanga, stakeholders, and our wider community won’t be wasted. It provided us with fresh ideas as well as challenges, and gave us an up-to-date insight into what our communities care most about – an excellent foundation for all future regional planning.

When the RMA came into force on 1 October 1991, we notified our Transitional Regional Plan, which brought together the following existing bylaws and regulations into a single planning instrument: 

• Water classifications, minimum flows, and general authorisations under the Water and Soil Conservation Act 1967 
• Bylaws under the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Act 1941 
• Notices under the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Amendment Act 1959 
• Bylaws under the Water and Soil Conservation Amendment Act 1973 
• Bylaws under the Clean Air Act 1972 
• Other parts of the Clean Air Act 1972 
• Parts of the Clean Air (Smoke) Regulations 1975 
• Clean Air Zone (Christchurch) Order 1977 and Clean Air Zones (Canterbury Region) Order 1984. 

Timeline of the Transitional Regional Plan

• October 1991 - The Transitional Regional Plan became operative immediately upon notification, combining all existing regulations and instruments that were already in force under previous legislation as required by the RMA.
• August 1993: Proposed Plan Change 1 was developed to manage earthworks and vegetation clearance in Kaikōura but was later withdrawn and incorporated into the Land and Vegetation Management Regional Plan.
• June 2000: Plan Change 2 was approved and became operative, amending groundwater provisions in the Transitional Regional Plan to strengthen pollution controls.
• January 2008: Plan Change 3 was notified to amend the General Authorisation for the Discharge of Stormwater and became operative in August 2009.
• June 2011: The Transitional Regional Plan was revoked and fully superseded by the operative NRRP.

The Land and Vegetation Management Regional Plan (LVMRP) was developed to address specific issues with land and vegetation management in particular parts of Canterbury. A targeted regional plan was considered the best way of addressing those matters. The intention was for the LVMRP to be eventually superseded by the more comprehensive Natural Resources Regional Plan (NRRP).

Timeline of the LVMRP

• October 1994: All four parts of the LVMRP were notified, following the RMA’s Schedule 1 plan-making process.
• September 1997: Parts I and II of the LVMRP were formally adopted.
• August 2004: Part III of the LVMRP was withdrawn due to conflicts with the proposed Regional Coastal Environment Plan (RCEP) and enforceability issues, with key elements incorporated into the draft NRRP.
• January 2005: Part IV of the LVMRP was made operative, completing the plan-making process under Schedule 1 of the RMA.
• June 2011: All parts of the LVMRP were superseded when the NRRP became fully operative.

The Canterbury Natural Resources Regional Plan (NRRP) was our first comprehensive plan for managing land and water use in the Waitaha Canterbury Region. The NRRP covered all aspects of resource management in the region, except those already covered by the Regional Coastal Environment Plan.

The key aims of the NRRP were to establish environmental flow and allocation limits for freshwater resources, as well as to manage point-source discharges of contaminants, among other matters.

Timeline of the NRRP

• June 2002: Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of the NRRP were notified, covering an overview of the plan, Ngāi Tahu’s role in resource management, and air quality provisions.
• July 2004: Chapters 4–8 were notified as part of Variation 1, covering water quality and quantity, activities in lakes and rivers, wetlands, and soil conservation.
• 2005–2010: Variations 2–18 of the NRRP were notified to amend parts of the plan not yet made operative.
• October 2009: Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of the NRRP became operative, following the RMA Schedule 1 plan-making process.
• June 2011: Chapters 4–8 became operative, making the NRRP fully operative.
• September 2012: Plan Change 2 to the NRRP was notified and became operative, revising minimum flows and allocation for the Conway River/Tūtae Putaputa catchment.
• November 2013: Plan Change 3 was notified and became operative, establishing the Hurunui-Waiau River Regional Plan for surface and groundwater management and nutrient control.
• September 2015: Chapters 4, 7, and 8 were revoked as the Canterbury Land and Water Regional Plan (CLWRP) became operative.
• February 2017: Chapters 5 and 6 were revoked as the CLWRP became fully operative.
• October 2017: Chapters 1, 2, and 3 were revoked when the Canterbury Regional Air Plan became operative.

The latter stages of development of the NRRP coincided with several other matters that impacted the drafting and future of the plan. These included: 

• The Canterbury Water Management Strategy (CWMS), which was developed from 2008 to 2010 by the Canterbury Mayoral Forum, through extensive community consultation and collaboration between territorial authorities.
• In March 2010, central government replaced Canterbury Regional Council’s elected councillors with commissioners to progress the sustainable management Canterbury’s freshwater resource more quickly and efficiently.
• The proposed new Regional Policy Statement was notified in June 2011, around the time the NRRP became operative.
• The first National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management came into effect on 1 July 2011, shortly after the NRRP became operative, triggering consequential changes to the CLWRP. 

These matters led to the newly-appointed commissioners directing staff to prepare a second-generation plan that would better manage land and water use in Canterbury, and to fully implement the Canterbury Water Management Strategy.

The development of the Canterbury Water Management Strategy (CWMS) was conceived in 2007 as a way of bringing all interested stakeholders – local and central government, iwi, irrigators, NGOs and community groups together to contribute to a new collaborative strategy for managing freshwater in the Waitaha Canterbury region. It was hoped that through working collaboratively across sectors and interest groups, targets could be developed that struck the right balance between competing interests.

A key element of the CWMS was the division of Waitaha Canterbury into ten water management zones. These zones largely followed existing territorial authority and catchment boundaries. Each zone had a zone committee made up of representatives of key stakeholders, which was tasked with the development of targets and limits for the waterbodies in their zone through preparing a Zone Implementation Programme (ZIP). These ZIPs were to inform the development of future freshwater planning in Waitaha Canterbury.

Timeline of the CWMS

• 2007: The Canterbury Mayoral Forum agreed on the CWMS process, establishing a collaborative framework to manage regional water demands.
• September 2009: The draft CWMS was released for public consultation.
• July 2010: Final targets were agreed, the CWMS was formally adopted, and zone committees were established to develop Zone Implementation Programmes (ZIPs).
• March 2010: Elected councillors were removed and replaced by commissioners in May, with a remit to continue the CWMS collaborative work.
• 2011–2013: Zone Implementation Programmes were published for each Water Management Zone, guiding regulatory and non-statutory actions to improve water quality, quantity, biodiversity, and tāngata whenua values.
• October 2013: Selwyn Waihora ZIP Addendum was published to provide recommendations for Canterbury Land Water Regional Plan (CLWRP) changes.
• March 2014: Ashburton ZIP Addendum published.
• September 2014: South Coastal Canterbury ZIP Addendum published.
• November 2014: Wairewa ZIP Addendum published.
• July 2015: Lower Waitaki and Upper Waitaki ZIP Addendum published.
• 2015–2017: Twenty-one Good Management Practices (GMPs) were developed collaboratively and applied to all Canterbury farms via CLWRP - Plan Change 5 from 1 January 2017, covering water quality, farm management, and biodiversity.
• 2016: Upper Waitaki ZIP Addendum published.
• December 2018: Orari-Temuka-Opihi-Pareora and Waimakariri ZIP Addendum published.
• August 2019: CWMS was amended to include interim targets for 2025 and 2030.

On the 23 June 2011, Commissioners called for the development of a second-generation plan to address the deficiencies of the Natural Resources Regional Plan (NRRP) and better implement the goals of the Canterbury Water Management Strategy (CWMS). This Canterbury Land and Water Regional Plan (CLWRP) built on the NRRP, which had undergone a significant and lengthy drafting and consultation process. The specific objectives of the CLWRP were to make a plan that:

• managed land and water in an integrated way
• had sub-regional sections which would mirror the water management zone structure of the CWMS, and set policies, rules, and limits tailor-made for those sub-regions
• had interim provisions that would apply across the whole Waitaha Canterbury region until the zone committees were able to agree on the objectives and targets for their zones. Those objectives and targets would then be rolled into the CLWRP through a sequence of plan changes to update the sub-regional chapters in line with the relevant Zone Implemeantation Programme (ZIP) and Zone Implemeantation Programme Addendum (ZIPA). 

The notification of the CLWRP introduced a requirement for farms to develop a Farm Environment Plan as a condition of obtaining a consent for farming activities. These are an auditable tool to ensure farmers identify environmental risks associated with their farming operation, and plan how to reduce or mitigate them. A poor audit triggers a compliance visit and potentially more frequent visits until outstanding issues have been resolved. 

In 2015 the industry agreed Good Management Practices (GMPs) relating to water quality were developed collaboratively with industry groups and the Crown Research Institute. This resulted in 21 GMPs being published in 2015. GMPs were incorporated into the CLWRP via Plan Change 5 in 2017 and applied to all Waitaha Canterbury farms.  

It was always intended that bespoke sub-regional rules would be created for the CLWRP through a sequence of plan changes, informed by the work of zone committees. As a result, a number were already under development and notified before the CLWRP became operative. 

The CLWRP was also subject to amendments summarised under ‘National direction changes to freshwater plans’. 

Timeline of the CLWRP

• August 2012: Draft CLWRP was publicly notified (Decisions version – Jan 2014; Partially operative – Sept 2015; Fully operative – Feb 2017) to provide a regulatory framework for managing land and water resources in Canterbury.
• February 2014: Plan Change 1 – Selwyn Te Waihora was publicly notified (Operative – Feb 2016) to manage water quality and quantity in the Selwyn Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere catchment.
• September 2014: Plan Change 2 – Hinds Hekeao was publicly notified (Operative – June 2018) to manage land and water use in the Hinds/Hekeao catchment, including managed aquifer and near-river recharge sites.
• April 2015: Plan Change 3 – South Coastal Canterbury was publicly notified (Operative – Sept 2017) to manage land and water resources in the coastal areas of the Waitaki sub-region.
• August 2015: Plan Change 4 – Omnibus was publicly notified (Operative – March 2017) to introduce new region-wide policies and rules, protecting riverbed habitats, braided rivers, and community drinking water.
• October 2015: Plan Change 6 – Wairewa/Lake Forsyth was publicly notified (Operative – Feb 2017) to manage freshwater quantity and quality in the Lake Forsyth/Wairewa catchment.
• February 2016: Plan Change 5 – Nutrient Management and Upper and Lower Waitaki was publicly notified (Operative – Feb 2019) to implement Good Management Practice and bespoke rules for nutrient management.
• July 2019: Plan Change 7 was publicly notified in three parts (Omnibus, Orari-Temuka-Opihi-Pareora, Waimakariri) to manage land and water resources and introduce new region-wide policies for emerging issues.
• September 2019: CLWRP amended to implement sections of the Greater Christchurch Regeneration Act without using the Schedule 1 process.
• August 2023: Plan Change 7 became partially operative pending resolution of an appeal on rules governing plantation forestry and ports.
• March 2025: Plan Change 7 made fully operative following the hearings commissioner’s directions on the appeal.

The Opihi River Regional Plan (ORRP) was one of the first freshwater planning instruments developed by us. The ORRP took a considerable time to work through the planning process, in part due to the construction of Opuha Dam during its development, which required the plan to be altered. The latter stages of the ORRP’s development coincided with the early development of the NRRP, so the ORRP does not address some matters that were instead dealt with by the NRRP, and subsequently the Canterbury Land Water Regional Plan (CLWRP), such as the impact of land use change.

The ORRP was also subject to amendments summarised under ‘Nation direction changes to freshwater plans’.

• August 1994: The Opihi River Regional Plan was publicly notified, setting flow and allocation limits for the river, its tributaries, and connected groundwater.
• October 2000: The ORRP became operative.
• August 2023: The ORRP was revoked, with its flow regime now included in the CLWRP through Plan Change 7.

Development of the Waimakariri River Regional Plan (WRRP) dates from 1991 when a Waitaki River and Catchment Management Plan Discussion Draft was released for public consultation. Following a hearing, parts were incorporated into the Transitional Resource Regional Plan (TRRP) and further progress of the provisions was paused until the plan could be fully reframed under the RMA and Regional Policy Statement (the latter was under development at the time).

This earlier consultation was considered, along with evidence from new studies commissioned in the eventual drafting of the WRRP which was notified in 1996.

The WRRP was also subject to amendments summarised under ‘Nation direction changes to freshwater plans’.

• September 1996: The WRRP was publicly notified, establishing a flow regime for the mainstem, its tributaries, and northern tributaries.
• October 2004: The WRRP became operative.
• August 2009: Plan Change 1 (PC1) was publicly notified, addressing water abstraction concerns and setting B block allocation limits.
• June 2011: PC1 became operative.
• July 2019: Plan Change 2 (PC2) was publicly notified, removing sections relating to northern tributaries, now managed under the Canterbury Land Water Regional Plan via PC7.
• August 2023: PC2 became operative.

The Waitaki Catchment Water Allocation Regional Plan (WCWARP) was developed by the Waitaki Catchment Water Allocation Board, which was established by an Act of Parliament in 2004. The WCWARP seeks to resolve the competing needs for water in the Waitaki catchment, given the extensive hydroelectric power generation in that sub-region. 

The WCWARP only governs matters of water quantity and allocation. Water quality, as well as land use and other matters, were instead governed by the first Natural Resources Regional Plan (NRRP), and now the Canterbury Land and Water Regional Plan (CLWRP). 

• 2004: The Waitaki Catchment Water Allocation Board was established, focusing on holistic water management and balancing competing water-use priorities.
• February 2005: WCWARP was publicly notified, establishing a water allocation regime for the upper and lower Waitaki Catchment.
• July 2006: WCWARP became operative.
• June 2012: Plan Change 1 (Lowering of Lake Pukaki) was publicly notified (operative October 2012), setting rules for lowering the lake to allow increased consumptive water use for electricity generation in emergencies.
• November 2013: Plan Change 2 was publicly notified (operative December 2014), addressing overallocation in the Māerewhenua catchment.
• June 2014: Plan Change 3 – Omnibus – was publicly notified (operative September 2016), introducing policies and rules for the coastal areas of the Waitaki sub-region.

Technical work for an environmental flow and allocation regime for the Waipara Catchment Plan began in 2002. A community advisory group was established in 2004 and was consulted throughout development, for example, on completed issues and options reports. In 2009 councillors took part in workshops and made decisions on the form (for example, whether the Waimakariri River Regional Plan (WRRP) would be a new standalone plan) and policy direction for the Waipara Catchment, before the proposed plan was notified in 2010.

The WCP was also subject to amendments summarised under ‘Nation direction changes to freshwater plans’. 

• April 2010: The Waipara Catchment Flow and Water Allocation Regional Plan was publicly notified, establishing a flow regime for the Waipara Catchment.
• June 2012: WCP was made operative.

The Pareora River environmental flow review was initiated in 2007. The technical work was carried out over the next three years, limits and options were discussed with a community steering group. In 2010 the Council had a workshop to understand the hydrology of the catchment and make recommendations on policy, the Steering Group and other interested community members also presented their recommendations to the Council at this time.   

The Pareora Catchment Environmental Flow and Water Allocation Regional Plan (PCP) was also subject to amendments summarised under ‘Nationl direction changes to freshwater plans’.

• August 2010: The Pareora Catchment Environmental Flow and Water Allocation Regional Plan was publicly notified, establishing a surface and groundwater flow regime for the catchment.
• July 2012: The PCP became operative.
• August 2023: The PCP was revoked and its flow regime incorporated into the Canterbury Land and Water Regional Plan (CLWRP) through Plan Change 7.

Planning for an environmental and flow allocation regime review in the Hurunui Catchment began in 2004. Consultation on the Waiau River began later in 2009. In 2010, the Hurunui and Waiau Zone Committee was formed and the development of a single regional plan for the Hurunui and Waiau Catchments began. In 2011, provisions to manage the cumulative effects of land use on water quality were incorporated into the Hurunui and Waiau River Regional Plan (HWRRP).

The HWRRP was also subject to amendments summarised under 'Nation direction changes to freshwater plans'.

• October 2011: The Hurunui and Waiau River Regional Plan was publicly notified, managing water quantity (flow regime) and quality (land use controls) in the Hurunui, Waiau, and Jed catchments.
• December 2013: The plan became operative.
• April 2019: Plan Change 1 – Dryland Farming – was publicly notified, adjusting rules to ensure dryland farming was not unnecessarily restricted while still managing cumulative effects on water quality.
• September 2020: Plan Change 1 became operative (September 2020).