A land use consent is required when an activity is not permitted by our District Plan. Activities may include:
a building infringing daylight, setback, height, boundary and/or shading rules
altering or demolishing structures
earthworks
disturbing habitats of plants and animals
depositing substances on land
childcare centre
building in coastal areas
dealing with parking issues associated with a new business
signs, billboards
noise caused by business/commercial activity
For further details about the District Plan and to find out about the categories of activities follow the link below.
District Plan
Applying for a land use consent
You will need to complete the application form and include the following information:
covering letter
current Certificate of Title
advance fee/deposit
building activity or site plans
assessment of environmental effects - this may need to be suppported by technical reports, such as engineering or landscape reports
written permission from people/neighbours affected by the proposal
planning maps/locality maps
assessment against District Plan rules
four copies of the application and accompanying documents.
It is the applicant's responsibility to provide all details and information. Our guidance notes explain the process and the information which you need to include.
Resource Consent Application Guidance Notes [293kb]
Land Use Application [305kb]
Assessment of Environmental Effects Form [66kb]
Affected Parties Written Approval Form [71.6kb]
Contaminants in soil
The National Environmental Standard for Assessing and Managing Contaminants in Soil (NES) is used to assess the risk to health of site development where past activities may have contaminated the soil.
The questionnaire will help you to determine whether the regulations apply to your proposal and the HAIL checklist is a list of activities which are considered to contaminate the soil.
NES Contaminated Soils - Pre-lodgement Questionnaire [142kb]
Hazardous Activities and Industries List (HAIL) Checklist [44kb]
Landscape guidelines
Our Landscape Guidelines are designed to encourage best practice approaches to landscape planning associated with consent applications and provide direction on the information that should be provided in any resource consent application.
For further information, follow the link below.
Landscape Guidelines
Pre-application meeting
A pre-application meeting is an opportunity to discuss your proposal with our staff before you lodge a resource consent application. We offer three types of pre-application meetings, each with a different focus.
- initial concept - discuss development proposals at the early concept stage
- technical review - discuss the technical issues associated with a proposed resource consent application
- pre-lodgement - a pre-lodgement check of your proposed consent for completeness prior to lodgement of the application.
You are entitled to one free meeting of each type. If any follow up work is required, such as a technical review of information, the actual and reasonable cost of this work will be charged.
Any information offered during the pre-application process does not pre-empt the normal resource consent assessment and decision making process.
For further information relating to these meetings, select from the links below.
Pre-application Meeting Request Form [86kb]
A Guide to Concept Meetings - Fact Sheet [68kb]
A Guide to Technical Review Meetings - Fact Sheet [73kb]
A Guide to Pre-Lodgement Meetings - Fact Sheet [63kb]
Contact our Resource Consent Administration Team Leader to arrange a suitable date and time for a pre-application meeting by phoning: +64 9 430 4200.
Pre-application meeting appointments are available from 1.00pm to 4.30pm, Monday to Friday.
Processing a land use consent
We are required to process applications within 20 working days.
Checking/assessment
Your application is initially checked by our Customer Services staff to ensure the application is complete and contains sufficient information. This is not a technical planning check. The advance fee is paid at this stage.
Our senior planning staff then do an assessment and a preliminary planning check to ensure that the application satisfies the provisions of the RMA. If not, it may be rejected at this stage. If the application is accepted it is then processed.
A member of our planning team will visit the site and prepare a report with recommendations, which is then considered by a senior planner.
Setting conditions
Conditions may include:
- providing a performance bond
- protecting, restoring and enhancing a natural or physical resource including the planting of vegetation
- entering into a covenant
- measuring and monitoring impacts of the activity
- limitations on certain types of activities of the consent
- specifying engineering requirements, including plans of the activity
Assessing for a building consent
All land use consent applications are assessed by our Building Department as sometimes a resource consent is required before a building consent can be issued.
In some circumstances work may start on the building project but in other cases no work at all will be allowed until such time as the resource consent has been obtained.
For further information about the Building Consent process, follow the link below.
Building Consents
Assessing Development Contributions
If the application is approved, the consent may require Development Contributions and will be sent to our Development Contributions team for assessment.
For further information about Development Contributions, follow the link below.
Development Contributions
Granting/issuing the consent
When the Development Contributions assessment is complete, the consent is issued.
The decision and an invoice for any additional charges which may have been incurred are sent to the applicant or the agent, if one has been engaged.
If you or Council engage professional consultants to assist in determining compliance this will also add to the costs of processing an application.
Council fees are payable whether or not the consent is issued.
Follow the link below for details of our Schedule of Fees and Charges.
Fees and Charges
Monitoring the consent
Once the consent has been granted we are obliged to monitor its implementation. Our monitoring staff are notified of all approved resource consents and they check on the activity’s environmental effects to ensure that the consent is being used according to its limits and conditions.
We may also undertake monitoring if a complaint is received about an activity that affects the environment.
Lodging an objection
If you are unhappy with the decision in part or whole, you can object to it.
All objections must be made in writing within 15 working days of the decision being issued explaining the reason for the objection.
We must consider the objection within 20 working days, or, in the case of an objection relating to processing fees, as soon as practicable.
Contact us
If you need assistance with any aspect of your consent, you can contact any of our Customer Service Centres or the duty planner, phone +64 9 430 4200, who will be able to discuss with you all matters relating to the application process.
Council offices - locations and hours of opening