Selected aspects of planning law in New Zealand

Abstract

"A fundamental concern of development is recognition in the process of the responsibilities of a democracy" - Robert C. Weaver, The Urban Complex. In the interests of economic and general welfare most countries have imposed some form of land use control aimed at the development of new areas or the redevelopment of the old and at restricting undesirable land uses. New Zealand, under the Town and Country Planning Act 1953, has adopted a fairly typical system of zoning of land for classification of use associated with other forms of land use control. Such control of necessity constitutes a very grave infringement of the right of citizens to do as they wish with their own properties and, although legislation incorporating planning controls has been in New Zealand for many years, there is no doubt that the imposition of restrictions is often bitterly resented. Particularly is this so when the restrictions are discretionary or based on such elusive criteria as the preservation of "amenities" or on "town and country planning principles" as is frequently the case in New Zealand and perhaps the best expression of this quite general resentment is that contained in Wong v Northcote Borough [1952] N.Z.L.R. 417 at 423 per F.B. Adams J: