Our process

The Auckland Unitary Plan Independent Hearings Panel (the Panel) is a statutory body appointed by the Minister for the Environment and Minister of Conservation. It is set up under the Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Act 2010.

The Panel is independent of the Auckland Council (the Council) and set up in a separate office to the Council with staff funded by council but responsible to the Panel on a day-to-day basis.

The Panel’s job is to hear submissions and evidence on the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan (the Plan) and make recommendations to the Council about any changes the Panel thinks should be made to the Plan.

The Panel has also set up a process to encourage parties to resolve issues before and during the hearings process. This is through pre-hearing meetings, expert conferences and mediation.

The Panel has the power to make recommendations about changes to the Plan that were not raised by submitters.

The Council is responsible for preparing and notifying the proposed Unitary Plan and for running the submission process. The Council provides the Panel with the submissions, the summary of submissions and the further submissions on the Plan.

Once the submissions have been provided to the Panel, the Council steps back and lets the Panel get on with the job of hearing the submissions and deciding what changes to the proposed plan it will recommend to Council. The Council then considers the changes recommended by the Panel and decides to accept or reject the changes.

The Council will take part in pre-hearing and hearing processes and put forward its position as a submitter, but also as the “owner” of the Plan.

The Council is responsible for providing the Panel with the resources it needs to do its work properly. This includes paying for the costs of the Panel and the hearing process and providing staff to support the Panel.

Independence has been built into the statutory framework, the Panel’s terms of reference and the procedures developed for running the hearings.

The Panel chair is an Environment Court Judge and he and panel members have been selected by the Minister for the Environment and Minister of Conservation in consultation with Council for their qualifications, experience and competence.

The hearing process is a transparent process and open to public scrutiny. All hearings and pre-hearing meetings will be open to the public and media as observers but expert conferences and mediations will be limited to the parties only.

Reports on the outcome of pre-hearing meetings, mediation and expert conferences will be made available on the IHP website. All hearing sessions will be voice recorded. Recordings of hearing sessions in MP4 format can be requested from the panel office.

The process for the Unitary Plan is a new process under the Resource Management Act to deliver better plans that lead to good planning outcomes.

The main differences at the hearings stage are the introduction of an Independent Hearings Panel (rather than council-appointed commissioners) and the use of pre-hearing meetings, expert conferences and mediation to try and resolve issues before the hearing. The overall goals are to achieve better solutions and for less time to be required for formal hearings.

The Panel will make recommendations to the Council about any proposed changes to the Plan after it has considered the submissions. The Council will then make decisions on whether to accept or reject the Panel’s recommendations. There are limited opportunities for submitters to appeal.

The hearing process began in September 2014. A list of hearing topics and their likely timing is available on the hearings page under ‘hearing schedule documents’ along with a detailed schedule of pre-hearing and hearing events at least six months in advance. These dates may change and you should check the website often.

The hearings will likely continue until around the end of April 2016. The Panel then has to prepare its recommendations and provide them to the Council by 22 July 2016 for the Council to consider and notify its decisions on those recommendations within 20 working days i.e. 19 August 2016.

The hearing process has to allow enough time for the Panel to hear all of those submitters who wish to be heard and to consider all the matters raised before making recommendations on the Plan. The Unitary Plan brings together the regional policy statement and previous regional and district plans, so the hearings cover a wide range of topics that impact on all Aucklanders.

You will only be contacted about pre-hearing meetings and hearing sessions if you have said on your submission that you wish to be heard, or if you have contacted the panel office to let us know that you wish to be heard.

If you are a submitter but do not wish to be heard, your submission will still be considered by the Panel when making their recommendations on the Plan.

Hearing sessions and pre-hearing meetings are open to the public and the media as observers. Only submitters or their representative and their witnesses are allowed to speak.

The Panel or the Council may seek permission from the Minister for the Environment to extend the deadline for the Panel to make its recommendations by up to a year from the original deadline of 22 July 2016.

The Panel has set out a programme to complete the hearings in the time available and will manage the hearing process with this in mind. Adjournments and extensions of time are unlikely to be granted.

The hearing topics are based on the coding framework used by the Council to summarise the submissions. This also reflects the structure of the Unitary Plan itself and the Panel considers this is the best way to ensure the hearings take an integrated and consistent approach across the whole plan.

The order for the rest of the hearing topics is based on moving from the general ‘higher order’ provisions to the more specific provisions. This means that Regional Policy Statement (RPS) matters (excluding the RPS schedules) will be heard first, followed by objectives and policies, before dealing with the regional and district rules, site specific issues, schedules and designations.

You will only be invited to attend hearings and pre-hearing steps if you have asked to be heard.

If your submission is about multiple topics in the plan you will be invited to attend the hearings on all these topics. This could mean that you are invited to multiple pre-hearing events and hearings.

The Gulf Islands District Plan is operative so the Islands are not impacted by the district plan provisions in the PAUP. However the Islands are impacted by the regional policy statement sections of the PAUP and the regional plan provisions. This includes provisions that replace the regional air, land, water and coastal plans, and that provide for protection of such things as outstanding natural landscapes and significant ecological areas.

The Panel has the power to decide how it will run the hearings, including any processes before the hearing.

The use of pre-hearing meetings, expert conferences and mediation is one of the new features of the Unitary Plan process.

The aim of these pre-hearing processes is to clarify or work through issues in a more collaborative and less formal way than is possible in a hearing. This is expected to result in better solutions and to reduce the amount of time required in formal hearings.

Depending on the matter or issue to be clarified or resolved, the process can include any or all of these approaches:

• Pre-hearing meetings;
• Expert conferencing;
• Mediation;
• Direct negotiation not involving the Panel.

The results of these processes will be reported to the hearing.

The people involved may include submitters, the Council and any others the Panel thinks should be involved, including expert witnesses.

The pre-hearing meetings will be chaired or facilitated by a member of the Panel or someone appointed by the Panel chair.

Pre-hearing meetings will be open to the public unless the Panel chair directs otherwise for a particular reason. Members of the public can attend as observers. Only submitters and their witnesses will be allowed to speak.

Expert conferences and mediations will not be open to the public. However there will be a written report on all such meetings that will be made available on the hearings page.

To find out more about these processes, please read the hearing procedures and fact sheets on the our process page.

Most of the hearings, pre-hearing meetings, expert conferences and mediations will be held in the Independent Hearing Panel hearing rooms on level 16, 205 Queen Street, in the CBD.

The hearing rooms at 205 Queen Street have limited capacity. Hearing sessions and related processes that have a large number of submitters may be held in other locations. Please check the hearings page for details.

If the number of people at the hearing exceeds the maximum allowed for building safety, priority will be given to the people who need to be there for that part of the hearing to proceed.

A central location was chosen because most hearing topics are not specific to one location so will involve parties from all over Auckland. As the Queen Street premises are readily accessible by all forms of public transport this was seen as a good option for providing access to people across the Auckland region.

Pre-hearings and the hearing sessions are open to the public, but expert conferences and mediation are not. This is because material at those meetings may need to be disclosed on a confidential “without prejudice” basis. The outcome of all such meetings (but not information provided in confidence) will be recorded and reported to the hearing, and will be available on the hearings page of the hearings page.

Members of the public can attend pre-hearing meetings and hearings as observers. Only submitters or their representative and witnesses are allowed to speak.

Once all the hearings have finished, the Panel will provide a recommendation report(s) to the Council that will include any recommended changes to the Plan.

The Council will then consider the Panel’s recommendations and make decisions on whether to accept or reject them. The Unitary Plan will then be changed and issued as the operative Auckland Unitary Plan and will take full effect, subject to any appeals.

Where the Council accepts the Panel’s recommendations, appeals can only be made on a point of law. These appeals are made to the High Court.

Where the Council rejects the Panel’s recommendations, appeals on substance can be made to the Environment Court.

Appeals can also be made to the Environment Court where the Panel has recommended changes to the Plan that were not raised in submissions.

A schedule of hearings will be available on the hearings page of the website. Please check this regularly as hearing dates and times may change at short notice. You can also phone the panel office on 09 979 5566.

The panel office will contact you at least ten working days before the relevant hearing to let you know when the hearing will take place. Your notice of hearing will tell you how to arrange a time to attend the hearing.

Communication about the hearing will be by email or by post if you do not have an email address or have asked to be contacted by post.

Access to documents relating to the hearing will be provided by electronic link. If you are unable to access documents on the website the office will arrange for copies of documents to be sent to you.

If you expect to be attending a particular hearing, but have not received an email or letter from the panel office a week before the hearing is due to start, please phone the office on 09 979 5566.

Fact sheets on each step of the process are available on the our process page of the website. These fact sheets have been translated into te reo Māori and some other languages.

Submissions can be presented in any of New Zealand’s official languages (English, te reo Māori or sign language). If submitters wish to present written or oral material in te reo Māori or sign language, they will be asked to let the hearing administrator know in advance so that interpreters or translation can be arranged.

Documents provided before or during the hearings will be available on the hearings page.

Documents provided by the Panel (records of pre-hearing meetings and the Parties and Issues reports) will be compatible, where practicable, with screen reader software for use by the sight-impaired.

The hearings will not be transcribed. Individual hearing sessions will be voice recorded and a copy of the audio record can be provided on request. Note that pre-hearing meetings will not be voice recorded but all written reports on pre-hearing processes will be made available on the hearings page.