Johanna King on the Challenges of ‘Highly Productive Land’ Designation for Farmers Weekly

We’re proud to share that Johanna King, one of our legal experts, recently contributed to Farmers Weekly, offering insights into the challenges surrounding the designation of ‘highly productive land.’ This important discussion examines how these classifications could impact landowners and what to watch for in the evolving regulatory landscape.

Challenges may lurk in ‘highly productive land’ maps

Landowners and farmers with properties on highly productive land are urged not to ignore council letters as they arrive in rural letterboxes and are communicated later this year.

“When maps classifying their land as highly productive (or not) turn up, there are likely to be a few people surprised by what is tagged to their property, and what the implications of that mapping status will be,” said Johanna King, Resource Management Act (RMA) lawyer and senior associate at Tavendale and Partners.

King’s home patch of Canterbury is ground zero for properties that will be and often already are included in the definition of “highly productive” land, itself the result of the 2022 National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land (NPS-HPL).

It was established with the aim of protecting high-value food-producing land, recognising it as a finite resource with long-term values for land-based primary production.

Established through the RMA, the NPS-HPL already classifies a lot of rural land as “highly productive” and limits what kind of uses can take place on the land.

“Regional councils will be notifying owners by October this year as they release their maps of highly productive land into their regional policy statements.

There will be a hearing process for landowners who want to participate and put forward a case to have their maps changed.

“Once that mapping and hearing process is complete, the district councils have six months to adopt the maps before implementing new rules into their district plans to control or make impossible certain land uses on that highly productive Land.”

The definition of “highly productive” land is based on the land’s Land Use Capability (LUC) with types 1 to 3 regarded as “highly productive”.

Canterbury is a hot spot for high-value catchment, particularly between burgeoning towns in the Selwyn, Waimakariri and Mid-Canterbury areas.

Other parts of the country include Auckland’s fringes, Southland, Nelson, the Manawatū-Whanganui region, the Bay of Plenty and parts of Waikato.

King said some landowners may not welcome the discovery their title is deemed to be highly productive and subject to tougher restrictions.

She warns that farmers may not be aware this is either already the case or is coming when regional councils take a more detailed approach to the maps later this year.

Options landowners may have thought they have in the future for development may no longer be possible.

“It could mean in the future you are not able to subdivide off part of your farm for housing or smaller titles.”

King said it is not helped by maps available online often lacking the granularity needed to get a clearer picture of each particular land parcel to figure out which title or parts of titles are in or out of the LUC 1, 2 or 3 classification.

Late last year there were also some amendments made to the NPS-HPL wording to enable highly productive land to also be used for intensive indoor farming of stock, indoor or greenhouse growing operations and renewable energy projects like solar panels.

There may also be concerns that, if an area is deemed highly productive, there aren’t enough reverse sensitivity protections provided to ensure landowners can continue to farm or grow crops unimpeded by urban opposition to the likes of noise or smell.

Landowners unhappy with being included in the classification can enter a hearing process where they can put their case forward to say why they do not think their land is suitable for including as highly productive land.

“Ground-truthing your land against the LUC criteria is an expense but farmers are already doing a lot of this sort of assessment already, by mapping their different soil types on farm and knowing where the challenging terrain is.

“Working with a qualified consultant to package this up early will mean you would be prepared if you needed to combat the council’s maps when the time comes.”

Read the full article here:
Challenges May Lurk in ‘Highly Productive Land’ Maps