SNAs have extra protections on their use as they have significant native vegetation or habitat for native wildlife. Photo: Lois Williams / LDR
A vocal advocate of property rights, West Coast regional councillor Allan Birchfield, is applauding the government's environmental law reforms - but he warns Coast councils can't afford to compensate landowners with significant natural areas (SNAs) on their properties.
The Natural Environment Bill, presented in Parliament on Tuesday, entitles landowners to compensation from councils in the form of cash, lower rates or extra development rights, if an SNA is identified on their land.
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop said the Bill strengthens property rights.
"It restores the freedom for New Zealanders to use their land in ways that affect nobody else. Councils will be required to provide relief to property owners when imposing significant restrictions like heritage protections or significant natural areas."
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SNAs had extra protection on their land use because they had significant native vegetation or habitat for native wildlife.
The provision also applied to other designations, including outstanding natural landscapes and sites of significance to Māori.
Birchfield - who lobbied for more than six years for compensation for landowners affected by SNAs - said the idea was sound, but cash compensation on the West Coast was a pipe dream.
"The One plan (Te Tai O Poutini Plan) has identified half our private land under some sort of label or restriction.
"I know one farmer's got something like 800 hectares in wetland; the councils can't afford to do it, they're all heavily in debt, borrowed up to the limit."
There were two choices, Birchfield said: either pay up or remove the designation on the land.
Identifying SNAs had been a requirement under the RMA for decades, but on the West Coast, only the Grey District Council had complied, identifying SNAs about 15 years ago.
But the new rules would be retrospective, and those landowners could be eligible for compensation, the Minister's office confirmed.
"In certain circumstances, councils will need to reassess SNAs (and other controls) against the new rules. The Bill provides that a person can be eligible for relief if a control is carried over from an RMA plan to a new plan under the reformed system."
Two conditions applied, the spokesperson told LDR.
First, the control (eg an SNA designation) must have a significant impact on the reasonable use of the relevant land, and secondly, the relevant land cannot have been sold in the intervening period - i.e., after the control had been in put in place.
"This is because the new buyer of the land would have been aware of the control and this would have affected what they paid for the land."
Environmental Defence Society chairperson Gary Taylor said he expects the new relief provision will be scrapped, as the Bill progresses through the committee stages.
"I would expect we will be left with something like the existing Section 85 of the RMA, which says if council rules restrain you from the reasonable use of your property you are entitled to compensation."
That provision had not been used very often, Taylor said.
He believed the overall direction of the government's reforms was workable but there would have to be changes in three key areas.
"One is legal standing - the right to be heard on consent applications, which they're proposing to limit.
"The second is the relief provision - it's a concept that doesn't have a place in our legal system, I don't think. There's a public interest element in looking after our environment whether it's on public land or private land."
More work was also needed on the setting of environmental limits, and who will set them, Taylor said.
On Wednesday morning, Parliament passed urgent legislation extending the duration of thousands of existing resource consents.
It automatically extended existing or expired consents to 31 December 2027, allowing operations to continue lawfully while the new environmental planning system beds in.
West Coast councils have been approached for comment but were still working through the detail of the proposed legislation by the publication's deadline.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
