New Zealand's Resource Management Act, which was adopted in October 1991, introduced new provisions which impact heavily on the planning and construction of all projects including roading. This paper outlines background requirements and briefly describes the new procedures which were intended to simplify the previous disparate section of legislation and administration. By using three road imrovement cases as examples, the paper explains, that the intital experiences of the Resource Management Act requirements have enabled: the environmental effects of a project to be more closely aligned with its planning and design, and there has been a significant widening of community involvement in the decision making. However, in the decision making. However, the paper concludes that if reasonable time frames for the approval procedures continue to be disregarded by the approving authorities, often by requesting more information, then the whole planning process will begin to grind to a halt. It is essential that the intent of the Resource Management Act, "to promote the sustainable management of physical and natural resources", not its content, becomes the driving force of its implementation. (A)
Abstract