What is a designation? A designation is a planning tool which can be used only by Ministers of the Crown, local authorities and network utility operators, identified under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) as requiring authorities.

With a designation, requiring authorities can set aside land for future public works or projects like roads, telecommunications and electricity networks, or schools and prisons.

A designation places restrictions on what anyone other than the requiring authority can do on the designated land. If an area of your property is part of a designation it means you cannot make changes to the land without prior written consent of the requiring authority or necessary approvals from the district council.

Once a designation is in the district plan, the proposed works can be carried out there at any time and the authority responsible does not have to comply with the district plan rules.

To find out more about the designation process under the RMA, check out the Ministry for the Environment’s An everyday guide to the RMA: The designation process .

Designations in Proposed Selwyn District Plan

As part of the review of the Selwyn District Plan all requiring authorities with designations in the current Plan have been invited to give written notice of whether they require the current designations to be included, with or without modification, in the Proposed District Plan.

Notices of requirement are not required for designations that are being rolled over from the current District Plan into the Proposed District Plan (with or without modification) or being removed from the Proposed District Plan as they are no longer required.

Fourteen requiring authorities have requested that one or more of their existing designations be rolled over into the Proposed District Plan. These are:

  • Airways Corporation of New Zealand Ltd
  • Chorus New Zealand Ltd
  • Central Plains Water Ltd
  • Canterbury Regional Council
  • Minister for Children
  • Minister of Corrections
  • Minister of Defence
  • Minister of Education
  • Minister of Police/New Zealand Police
  • New Zealand Transport Agency
  • Orion New Zealand Ltd
  • Selwyn District Council
  • Spark New Zealand Trading Ltd
  • Transpower New Zealand Ltd.

Kordia Ltd have advised that they no longer require a designation for their broadcasting, telecommunications and radio communications facility at Aitkens Road, Hororata.

The Overview Report [PDF, 4050 KB] describes:

  • existing designations and whether they are proposed to be retained unmodified or modified (and the nature of and reason for the proposed modification), or removed
  • proposed new designations.

Notices of Requirement

Below you can find the notice of requirement for each new designation included in the Proposed Selwyn District Plan.

Minister of Education

Orion

·    ·Selwyn District Council