Operative District Plan

The district plan directs how we change, develop and use our environment, as well as our obligations for protecting and safeguarding it for future generations.

Operative District Plan

The District Plan assists Council to carry out its functions under the Resource Management Act 1991, including:

  • Integrated management of the natural and physical resources of the City;
  • Ensuring there is sufficient development capacity in relation to housing and business land;
  • Effects of the use of land and associated natural and physical resources;
  • Natural hazards, the management of hazardous substances, contaminated sites and biodiversity conservation to the extent that they are affected by land use;
  • Land subdivision;
  • Noise; and
  • Activities on the surface of rivers and lakes.

The Porirua City District Plan became operative on 1 November 1999.  

The Operative District Plan maps are also displayed here as map layers in the Council’s GIS system

District Plan sections. All files are in pdf format. Most are less than 100KB.

Cover Page 

Operative Sealing 

Table of Contents  

A Introduction   

B Significant Issues   

C Objectives and Policies 

D Guide to the Maps and Rules  

E Financial Contributions 

F Information to be Supplied  

G Cross Boundary Issues   

H Car Parking Vehicle Movements & Roads  

HH Historic Heritage 

I Hazardous Facility Screening Procedure  

J (Removed by Plan Change 15) 

K Designations  

L Monitoring  

M Interpretation  

NU Network Utilities 

PFZ Plimmerton Farm Zone

Z Ngāti Toa Claim Settlement and Appendix Cover 

Updates to the District Plan are recorded in the Update Schedule.
Section 1 Ngāti Toa Claim Settlement was added on 21 January 2015.

Minor corrections have been made under delegated authority and incorporated into the Operative Plan.

Plan changes and updates

Decisions on Plan Change 19

The Independent Hearings Panel has issued its recommendations on Plan Change 19 to the Operative District Plan. These were considered by the Council at its meeting on the 30th November 2023. The Councils decisions were publicly notified on 7 December 2023.

A copy of the Plimmerton Farm Zone chapter with the changes made through decisions on Plan Change 19 included as track-changes is available here. The decisions also amended the Operative District Plan maps, with the new Map A-FPZ-1 available here.

The changes made through Plan Change 19 became operative on 20 December 2023.

July 2021 plan update

In line with the National Policy Statement on Urban Development 2020, we have removed minimum parking requirements from our Operative District Plan.

This update will help to enable urban growth and make better use of urban land. Developers may still choose to provide car parking in many areas, but the number of car parks will be driven by market demand. For further details, you can read the public notice about the removal of minimum car parking space requirements.

Recent plan changes

Council has processed 18 plan changes since the District Plan became operative on 1 November 1999, and notified Plan Change 19 on 11 August 2022 (for more information on this plan change visit our consultation webpage).

Our most recent plan changes are listed below:

Past plan changes are listed below.  If you wish to receive a copy of these changes, please contact our Customer Services Centre on (04) 237 5089.

Plan change # Description Operative Date
14 Aotea Block - Rezoning of Business Park Zoned Land to Suburban Zone 15 March 2011
13 Westside Industrial (Stage 3) 26 May 2011
12 Open Space Zone 1 March 2012
11 Minor Earthworks 1 July 2011
10 Suburban Zone, Residential Infill, Amenity Management and Miscellaneous Minor Amendments 1 July 2011
9 withdrawn 11 March 2008
8 Recreation and Open Space Zone 9 March 2010
7 Wind Farms 4 February 2013
6 Judgeford Hills Zone 5 December 2008
5 Aotea Mixed Use Policy Area and Suburban Shopping Centre Area 20 October 2004
4 Baxters Knob Commercial Recreational Policy Area 20 October 2004
3 Medium Density Residential Policy Area 20 October 2004
2 Business Park Zone 19 January 2005
1 Above Ground Network Utility Lines 18 October 2006

Purchasing the District Plan

Individual sections of the District Plan can be downloaded from the links above. Please note that the official version of the District Plan is the hard copy version.  Legally correct, registered and updated copies of the District Plan are held at the Council administration building and Porirua City libraries.

Copies of the Porirua City District Plan are available for purchase at a cost of $250.00 (GST inclusive). Postage will be additional. We do not provide an updating service for these copies.