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Managing road safety and efficiency under the Resource Management Act 1991: The way forward
3. Purpose
Print version: Managing road safety and efficiency under the Resource Management Act 1991 (PDF, 259 KB, 63 pages)
- 3.1 Purpose of the best practice guideline
- 3.2 Targeted users
- 3.3 Benefits
- 3.4 How the BPG will be useful
- 3.5 Planned outcome – improved road network environment
3.1 Purpose of the best practice guideline
The purpose of the guideline is to help territorial local authorities review their district plans to ensure good planning provisions are included to address roading safety and efficiency issues.
It does not seek to critically analyse the district plans reviewed in stage 1. Instead, it draws on the general conclusions of stage 1, as well as information available from other relevant sources. It provides a background against which to assess projects to provide for overall greater road safety and efficiency.
Impacts need to be considered not just in terms of the road that any particular development may directly front onto, but also potential impact on adjoining roads and the overall road hierarchy. A broad-based view to road safety and efficiency is warranted under the legislative regime to wisely manage resources, particularly those of regional and national importance.
In addition, the guideline aims to ensure that the internal layouts of developments are safe for all users. While the internal layouts of developments are not part of the road network, if the internal layouts are easy and safe to use, it will encourage people to use them rather than parking and manoeuvring on the nearby road.
3.2 Targeted users
This guideline is targeted primarily to two groups:
- local territorial authorities (councils)
- potential resource consent applicants (developers and their consultants).
3.3 Benefits
As resource management decisions makers, councils stand to benefit from practices that will make their decision-making task easier and more readily transparent and that will clearly reflect a consistency in approach in considering any proposal that may impact on safety and efficiency within the road network.
As parties whose proposed activities often have significant cost and timing implications, applicants (developers) stand to benefit during the resource consent process from an early awareness of councils’ likely informational requirements, enabling them to avoid time delays in providing additional information. Also, by being able to provide all required information, their applications are likely to be processed more quickly.
3.4 How the guideline will be useful
3.4.1 How local authorities can use the guideline
Local authorities can use the guideline to:
- scrutinise the provisions within their district plans. The district plan provisions can be comprehensive and integrated in such a manner that they provide a strong hierarchical basis from which to control forward-planned development. The guideline highlights these types of provisions
- undertake safety audits of individual major development projects. Detailed assessment by council traffic engineers or consultants may be appropriate. The guideline can be included in other planning mechanisms, such as internal-procedure guidelines for forming assessment criteria for evaluating resource consents
- signal to potential developers that a particular project should be scrutinised by traffic engineers to determine actual and potential impacts on the roading network
- consider whether appropriate development contributions are important to offset the cost to the general public of necessary roading improvements.
3.4.2 How developers can use the guideline
Developers can use the guideline:
- as a basis for early liaison with councils when discussing a tentative development and the informational requirements to accompany an application
- to provide a basis for preparing the assessment of environmental effects (AEE) as part of a formal application to their council.
There is an interrelationship between provisions in the district plan and applications for resource consent. The requirements in the district plan will affect the quality of information provided in any AEE.
If important issues or provisions are omitted or deficient in the district plan, applicants who consult it may not fully consider all the relevant effects of their proposal.
3.5 Planned outcome – improved road network environment
It is hoped that the widespread adoption of this guideline will complement other initiatives to improve the road network environment and reduce requests to Land Transport NZ to fund roading projects that have arisen from declining safety and efficiency standards caused by development. It is acknowledged that this is a long-term aim and that that there is likely to always be cumulative effects associated with development that will impact on road safety and efficiency.
Page created: 26 September 2008