The National Policy Statement on Urban Development Capacity (NPS-UDC) directs local authorities to provide sufficient development capacity for housing and business growth to meet demand in the short (1-3 years), medium (3-10 years) and long term (10-30 years).
The requirements of NPS-UDC policies variously relate to both territorial authorities and regional councils.
The NPS-UDC adopts a tiered structure that establishes additional requirements for local authorities with high-growth and medium-growth urban areas within their district or region.
The Christchurch urban area, as identified by Statistics New Zealand includes the towns of Prebbleton (Selwyn district) and Kaiapoi (Waimakariri district). The NPS-UDC specifies that the application of policies to ensure development capacity is not restricted to the boundaries of the identified urban area. The NPS-UDC also states that local authorities that share jurisdiction over an urban area are strongly encouraged to work together to implement the NPS-UDC.
Key deliverables required by the NPS-UDC are:
- quarterly monitoring of a range of market indicators
- a housing and business development capacity assessment
- setting minimum targets for housing in regional policy statement and district plans
- prepare a future development strategy to demonstrate sufficient, feasible development capacity in the medium and long term.