Plan Change 5: Accessible Parking

Te Tūtohunga Panonitanga 5: Tūnga Waka Whai Huarahi

Thank you for your interest. Plan Change 5 Accessible Parking has been completed and was incorporated into the District Plan on 26th May 2025.

What was Plan Change 5?

Plan Change 5 made 18 changes to the District Plan to enable Council to consider and require accessible parking. It identifies where accessible parking must be provided and sets an absolute minimum number of accessible car parks in those situations. The activities required to provide accessible parking are those required to do so under the Building Act and the parking rates reflect NZS 4121:2001.

This plan change was needed, as in 2020 the Government required all councils to remove minimum parking requirements from their District Plans (National Policy Statement - Urban Development 2020: Section 3.38). These provisions were removed from the District Plan in December 2021 and meant it no longer contained a requirement for accessible parking, but instead relied on New Zealand Standards (NZS 4121: 2001) which sets the number of accessible car parks as a ratio of the total number of car parks provided. With the removal of minimum car parking requirements, if a developer chose not to provide any car parks, Council could not require the provision of an accessible car park, even for an activity that is required to provide it under legislation like the Building Act.

What happened?

Proposed Plan Change 5 was initially notified in May 2022 and 1 submission was received. However, in order to ensure that notification requirements were fully met, Plan Change 5 was renotified in May 2023. The initial submission was carried over and 4 new submissions were received. Further submissions were able to be made in September 2023 and 0 were received.

Four of the submissions were in full support and 1 submission requested amendments. These requests were worked through with the submitter. The submitter and Council planners worked out agreed solutions. With these accepted the submitter no longer wished to be heard at hearing and a public hearing did not need to be held.

The Hearings Panel met on the 27 November 2024 to review the submissions, planner recommendations and make decisions.

The Hearings Panel issued their decision on 27 January 2025 and appeals were able to be made until 12 March 2025. No appeals were received.

Following the close of appeals, the Council approved the plan change at the Council meeting on the 8 May 2025. The plan change was made operative on the 26 May 2025.

Documents

• Proposed Plan Change 5: Accessible Parking - Section 32 Report - (PDF, 811 KB)
• Public notice 3 – Decisions and appeals
• Document

  Public notice 4 – Operative date (1.14 MB)
• Document

  Public notice 1 – Re-notification (213.58 KB)
• Document

  Renotification Summary Document (261.2 KB)
• Document

  s32 Report – Appendix 1 – Original tracked changes (279.08 KB)
• Document

  s32 report- Appendix 2 - Renotification tracked changes - May 2023 (329.79 KB)

Submissions:

• Summary of Submissions - (PDF, 326 KB)
• Submission - Caroline van Leeuwen - (PDF, 90 KB)
• Submission - Disabilities Resource Centre - (PDF, 320 KB)
• Submission - Gina Seay - (PDF, 85 KB)
• Submission - Ross Gardiner - (PDF, 436 KB)
• Submission - WAI - (PDF, 245 KB)
• Document

  Public notice 2 – Summary of Submissions available and ready for further submissions (100.55 KB)

Planners recommendations (s42A):

• Document

  Planners Recommendation (s42A) Report (499.91 KB)
• Document

  s42A report - Appendix 1 - Tracked changes – NPS conversion (371.98 KB)
• Document

  s42A report - Appendix 2 - Tracked changes – with recommendations (371.86 KB)

Decision documents:

• Decision Report
• Decision tracked changes
• Section 32AA report – further evaluation of changes