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Consult, prepare and lodge your application

Consultation is best to be conducted early as it will help to shape your plan and then as your plan develops, consultation should continue.

Consultation

When we assess a resource consent application, we consider whether anyone may be adversely affected by the activities proposed in the application and we make efforts to consult.

Consultation will generally help smooth the processing of a resource consent application. Time spent on consultation before your application is lodged can mean considerable savings by avoiding lengthy and costly pre-hearings, hearings and appeals.

We recommend you talk to anyone who may be adversely affected by your proposed project or who may have an interest in the environment in general.

If the effects from your activity are limited to your site, then consultation may not be needed.

Who are the affected parties?

An affected party is someone who may experience an adverse effect as a result of your planned activity. Such parties will depend on the nature and type of your activity, but may include:

  • Owners, occupiers and users of adjacent and nearby land.
  • Downstream water users.
  • Users of the same groundwater resource.
  • Tangata whenua.
  • Department of Conservation.
  • Fish & Game.
  • Occupiers of land living down wind of a proposed discharge to air.

We're happy to provide guidance on who you might need to approach and give you appropriate contacts.

Preparing & lodging your application

In your consent application, the clearer you describe what you want to do and where you want to do it, the easier the process of lodging an application will be. There are specific Consent forms for each activity. 

The application form will ask you to:

Describe the activity

You must provide clear details of what you want to do and where. The more information you can provide, the better understanding we will have of your proposal. In particular, we require a map clearly showing the location of proposed works and a legal description of the site. If you need help supplying a site map of your property we have a few mapping tools that might come in handy.

Describe the environment

We need to know where your proposed activity is located, in relation to nearby features. For example, what is the distance to any significant environmental, historic or cultural sites?

Research plans and rules

In general, for a new consent, you will need to: 

Provide an environmental assessment

So that we can assess the likely environmental impact of your activity, your consent application must include an Assessment of Environmental Effects (AEE).  Depending on the effects, an AEE can be a short written statement or longer report.  Effects on the environment that you will need to consider can be short-term or long-term, positive or negative, and may include:

  • Identification of any affected parties and evidence of any consultation
  • Effects on the environment
  • Possible ways of avoiding, remedying or reducing any adverse effect identified
  • Possible alternatives to the proposal
  • Positive effects

More information about assessing environmental effects can be found here (insert link to page about assessing environmental effects).

Assessing cultural effects

Our Regional Policy Statement (RPS) is clear that it is good practice to consult with tangata whenua in relation to your consent application. As per the policies within the RPS, consent applications that are lodged with a cultural effects assessment should have input by tangata whenua to help identify any actual and/or potential cultural effects.

To assist you in this, Council can provide a list and contact details of tangata whenua who have registered an interest in the site of your activity so that you can undertake the assessment. We can also provide other information e.g. access to iwi and hapū management plans, details about identified archaeological sites and details of any Statutory Acknowledgements relevant to the site.

Find out more about why and how we assess cultural effects.

Submitting your application

Once you feel your application is ready, please submit it with the initial payment via email, post or in person. After you have lodged your application, we will let you know within 10 working days if we need more information before proceeding to the next step.